


whatever it takes

by parallelisak



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, SKAM (Norway)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Hunger Games, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by The Hunger Games, Love, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Protecting each others, Survival, maybe ?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-06 18:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20295748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parallelisak/pseuds/parallelisak
Summary: “The male tribute from district 7 is…”Isak hopes it’s not him. There are dozens of other boys, it can’t be him. The odds are pretty small anyways, right? Sometimes, he hates his life but he’s not ready to die. He doesn’t want to die. It cannot be him.“Isak Valtersen.”Well, apparently, it can be Isak.-Or: Isak and Even find each other in a wrong place at a wrong time. Every second together is a blessing. Is Isak able to find a happy ending – alone or together with Even? Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hi !!
> 
> i'm glad that somebody found their way here, because i'm not so sure if anyone else even comes to this tag anymore. but welcome! i just want to say few words first
> 
> firstly, i'm a big fan of hunger games, it's very intriguing concept, and fun to write about, for sure. but as you probably know, it's very heavy and brutal as well. so please remember your own limits, and do not read if anything makes you uncomfortable! i just got the idea some time ago, and i think writing is fun so why not
> 
> secondly, english is not my first language, so i'm sorry if you come across any typos or mistakes, and if you do, please let me know! i also don't have a beta so... 
> 
> thirdly, i'm currently very busy during weeks, but i'll try my best to post always when i can. i have few chapters ready but the whole story is already planned so no worries about that. i just feel like if i don't write and post this now, i never will
> 
> but yeah! i hope somebody finds this story interesting & it would be amazing if you left a comment or anything!  
now, try to enjoy <3

Isak has his name too many times in that ball of glass, he knows it.

Almost everyone else around him does too, so he has hope, or at least he tries to think that. He has survived the reaping every year so far, he just has to survive this one too. But there’s a doubt in the back of his head, because in fact this is not about surviving, not yet. This is about luck, and when Isak thinks about his life, there has not been much luck there. 

“Welcome to the 66th Hunger Games! My name is Linn. I know you all are as excited as I am, so let’s get started!” The woman speaking, the escort, is new. She’s young and beautiful, dressed in a red dress and doesn’t sound as excited as she probably should. 

“Ladies first”, Linn says as she walks to the ball of glass dedicated to girls. She puts her hand in, and pulls out a white tag. “The female tribute of district 7 is… Emma Larzen.”

Isak knows who Emma is. She’s his ex-girlfriend. Fuck. Even though they kinda hate each other these days, he feels a bit bad for her. There are no voluntaries, so Emma walks to the stage. She looks terrified. Linn welcomes her with smile.

“And then the boys!” Linn says and walks to another ball of glass. 

Isak feels terrible, and the atmosphere is awful. Everybody standing there is holding their breath, their heart beating out of their chest, hands as wet as the ground after yesterday’s rain. 

Finally, Linn chooses a white tag from the ball. “And the male tribute from district 7 is…” 

Isak hopes it’s not him. There are dozens of other boys, it can’t be him. The odds are pretty small anyways, right? Sometimes, he hates his life but he’s not ready to die. He doesn’t want to die. It cannot be him.

“Isak Valtersen.”

Well, apparently, it can be Isak. 

Isak stops breathing. It’s pretty warm outside but suddenly he gets really cold, it feels like he's standing outside during winter, naked. His hands start shaking and he’s sure he’ll puke at any second.

“Isak”, somebody whispers next to him, sounding small and scared. Isak remembers to breath again. Everybody is staring at him. Why wouldn’t they? He takes the first step, and people make room for him. He takes another step, and another, and another. 

Like everyone already knew, there’s not voluntaries. Isak walks slowly through the crowd, climbs the stairs to the stage; he’s surprised he doesn’t fall. Linn’s smile looks more tired when looked close than from afar. Isak tries to smile back god knows why, but he can’t. The terrible feeling in his stomach is still there, of course it is.

“There they are! The tributes from district 7 to the 66th Hunger Games”, Linn says and the crowd applauses tamely. “Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour!”

Isak can feel the relief of the people now standing in front of him; they can start breathing again. Some of them might feel a bit sorry for him, but the ultimate feeling of theirs is relief.

Because it’s not them who will be killed soon. It’s Isak.


	2. chariot rides

Isak sits alone in a sofa. He’s in some kind-of-living room thing in a train that is heading to Capitol. There will be a tribute parade before they enter to the training center; there they will train how to win, _how to kill_.

Isak wishes he could stop the train and run back to home. He’s been away from district 7 for like, half an hour now, and he misses it already like hell. It engraves his heart, his soul. It’s a bit weird, because Isak had never felt really comfortable there, it didn’t feel like home half of the time. He’s always wished he could live anywhere else, he’s always wished he could have any other family than his. But still, after all that, district 7 sounds better than sure death in front of millions of TV-watchers. The thought makes Isak feel sick once again.

The door to the living room thing, whatever, opens. A guy – oh, it’s Eskild Tryggvasson, the winner of the 61th Hunger Games, and the latest winner from district 7 as well - steps in. He’s smiling a bit too wide taking into account to the situation.

“Hi Isak!” Eskild greets. “My name is Eskild Tryggvasson and I am your guru for now on.”

Isak stares at Eskild and doesn’t know what to say. Guru? Before he has a chance to even open his mouth Eskild speaks again.

“Just kidding”, he says. “I’m your mentor, but you can also call me guru if you want. That would be nice, actually. Anyways, I will do my best to give you advices but I’m not the one that keeps you alive in the arena. It’s you.”

Yeah. Isak knew he would hear that bullshit a lot.

“Well that was inspiring”, he says. The bitterness of his voice surprises even himself. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Eskild sits next to Isak. “I know you’re angry. You have every right to be, but don’t show it to them, you will have better chances to get sponsors. Show it to me, even shout at me if it makes you feel better.”

Isak is angry. He is angry and sad and terrified and nervous. He knows he can’t survive and there’s nothing he can do about it. He can fight and kill and fight some more but he still won’t survive.

“You know I will be killed before you have fucking time to say ‘cat’.”

“Yeah, well, that’s one option. But there are others too. You wouldn’t be the first not-so-likely-to-win to win this shit.” Eskild tries to sound comforting, he really does, but it’s not helping. “I was one of those. No one expected it to be me.”

“Eskild, I’m not going to win like you did.” Isak would like to think otherwise, but that would be lying to himself. He knows he’s going to die, that’s a fact. And neither he nor Eskild can help it.

Eskild stands up and does a dramatic wave with his hands. “Isak! Stop that! I can help you – try get you sponsors, think about alliances, give you advices -, but I’m not going to, if you’re so grumpy and negative all the time.”

The door opens again, and this time Linn and Emma walk in. Linn has changed her red dress to sweatpants and hoodie. Isak wishes he could wear a hoodie too, instead of his stupid fancy-ish dress shirt.

“The re-watch of the reapings starts soon”, Linn says. She puts the television on. Emma doesn’t look at Isak, and Isak is trying not to look at her. If she’s ignoring him, then he’ll ignore her too. Eskild had talked something about alliances, and Isak knows one thing for sure right now: he’s not going to be alliances with Emma, no way. They might be from the same district and they might be sent to die in the same arena, but that doesn’t mean they should start acting like nothing ever happened.

“Isak and Emma! You two have to concentrate now. You will see the other tributes”, Eskild says. “It’s very important.”

The tributes from career districts, 1, 2 and 4, are as Isak waited; voluntaries, physically powerful and a bit scary, and the boy from district 4 is like, very good-looking. Isak forgets the tributes from districts 3, 5, and 6 the second after their introducing is over. He looks elsewhere when his reaping is shown, he doesn’t want to see how weak and scared he must have looked. The only tributes that Isak can actually remember are from districts 9 and 10. The reaping of district 9 was full of drama. The brother of the female tribute volunteered to take the male tribute’s place, to protect his sister or something. His sister, a beautiful muslim girl, got angry about it. There was no volunteering in district 10, but it wasn’t drama free reaping either. Apparently, the tributes from district 10 are a couple, estimating about the kisses and crying. Isak feels sorry for them.

He knows he shouldn’t feel sorry for any of these people. One of them will kill Isak.

-

“I’m not going to be a tree.”

Eskild sighs. “What are you going to wear then?”

“I’d rather go naked than dressed as a fucking tree, Eskild!” Isak is not going to be a tree. What does his stylist think? A tree? He might be from district of lumber but it doesn’t mean tributes should dress as trees _every year_. Capitol really needs to think about hiring more creative people as stylists.

“I wouldn’t do that. Go naked, I mean”, Eskild says and puckers his brows. “Don’t get me wrong, you surely don’t look bad naked, it just wouldn’t be good for your reputation.”

Isak laughs. “Reputation? Do I have one?”

“Isak. Seriously. I don’t want you to ruin this right from the start. Ruin it in the arena, but let. Me. Fucking. Help. You.”

Isak sits down. “Why do you even try? You know I won’t win, so why would you waste your time to me when you could be having fun in Capitol?” Eskild is known from his wild lifestyle. Parties, parties, parties. He’s one of the winners that hasn’t gone insane yet, or maybe he’s just hiding it well.

“Believe me Isak, I would do that very willingly, but that’s not how it works. I see potential in you. If we play your game right from the start, you might have a chance.”

Isak thinks. He might have a chance? If Eskild wouldn’t sound so sure and serious, Isak would think he’s just talking shit.

“Yeah. Okay. If you want me to be a tree then I’m going to be a tree”, Isak finally says. He’s still not happy about it, but if _Eskild Tryggvasson_ is willing to skip parties to help Isak, maybe he could at least try.

“Yes, that’s right! And, actually, it’s not me, who wants you to be a tree, but whatever. I don’t know where your stylist is, but I hope you can manage to dress by yourself. I’m going to listen Emma’s appealing about her costume now.” Eskild leaves the dressing room. Isak sits alone in the bench, stares at his stupid tree costume hanging in the opposite wall. It has simple, fancy jumpsuit and even a hat. They both have the same tree design.

_Fuck this. _

Isak undresses his clothes, sweatpants and a grey hoodie he found from the train. He sighs heavily before wearing the outfit. It’s surprisingly comfortable, but when Isak turns around to see himself from the mirror, he almost chokes in laughter. He looks ridiculous; hopefully ridiculous enough, so the people from Capitol, his possible sponsors, will remember him.

-

Isak is a bit nervous. There’s only twenty minutes before the chariot of district 1 will leave. He’s standing next to the chariot of district 7 with his stylist, Oddvard, and Emma and her stylist, Toril. He and Emma still haven’t changed a word since they were chosen as tributes. Not that Isak would mind.

“I’m not sure if Eskild has already talked with you about this, but you need to _smile_. Smile and wave to the audience and you will be fine”, Oddvard says with his weird Capitol accent. He has green skin and blue hair, and his lips are glowing because of the amount of glitter in them.

Toril nods and her silvery, curly hair bounces all around. “Yes, yes. You have to make good first impression to the people of Capitol! They will love you, you two look amazing.”

Isak rolls his eyes. People from Capitol really have a weird definition of looking amazing. Emma is wearing an outfit similar to Isak’s, but instead of a jumpsuit it’s a dress. Her makeup is natural, even though her eyeliner is made to look like little branches.

“And oh! I almost forgot!” Oddvard exclaims. He gives a little leaf that has a button on it to both Isak and Emma. “You have to press the button. Not now, but during the ride. When you feel like it. It does some magic! You will love it, really.”

Isak doubts that, but he nods.

Toril claps her hands. “It’s time to go to your chariot! You have to be ready when it leaves.”

“Sure”, Isak says and doesn’t sound excited at all. When he steps in to the chariot, he feels even more nervous than he felt before. He hopes he will not fall during the ride.

“You’re standing too close”, Emma suddenly says, after silence of few minutes.

Isak gives her an ‘are you fucking serious’ -look. “Do you want me to walk then?”

Emma doesn’t answer, and they stand quietly the rest of the time, listening Oddvard and Toril exchange the newest gossips of Capitol. Isak is sure he’s never been in as awkward situation as now.

Finally, the chariot starts to move. Toril shouts: “Enjoy!”

Isak closes his eyes and exhales deeply, and then creates the biggest smile he can.

The moment they enter to outside, where everyone can see them, is _intensive_. The stands are full of cheering and yelling people, they are everywhere. And they are excited to see _him_.

Or not maybe specifically him as an individual, but as a tribute from the district 7.

Isak starts to wave, he smiles, sends air kisses everywhere. It feels fake, but he had decided to try. He knows he looks ridiculous, but people are still cheering at him, at him and Emma. Or maybe they’re cheering at people front or behind them, but right now, it doesn’t matter. He has adrenalin in his veins and his self-esteem is higher than any other moment since the reaping.

Somewhere halfway of the ride, Isak remembers the leaves Oddvard gave to them. “Emma”, he says and shows his leaf to Emma. Emma nods shortly, and they press the buttons at the same time. First, nothing happens, and Isak thinks that maybe the leaves were broken, but when he looks behind him, he gets what Oddvard was talking about.

There are _fucking glittery leaves_ coming out from his hat.

Isak thinks for a second about jumping off the chariot. First the tree outfit and then a hat that spits glitter leaves. That’s not how you impress anyone, Isak is sure about that. That’s how you embarrass someone, and that someone is Isak. Emma doesn’t look too happy either.

The audience is laughing and cheering, and since no one else looks as stupid as Isak and Emma, it must be directed at them.

_Shit_. Why did this have to happen to Isak?_ What the fuck_.

Isak tries his best to make himself smile as widely as earlier. None of these people will be his sponsor after this. He swears Oddvard will have consequences.

When the most horrible chariot ride ever and the President’s speech are over, and all the tributes are in the lounge of the training center, Isak rips his hat of and flings it to the floor.

“You look good as a tree”, someone says behind him, sounding a bit teasing. It’s the tall, blonde, good-looking guy from district 4. He’s wearing shiny fishing overalls and no shirt. He looks hot as hell, and Isak tries not to think about it.

“Yeah. Too bad that you forgot your fishing rod to home, so you can’t fish any praises to yourself”, Isak says, with sharp voice.

“Ooow! Someone is bitter”, a boy from district 2 says. “Even, you better watch out. You might be his first victim in the arena.”

“Chris, you forgot that he’s a tree. He can’t kill anyone”, the male tribute of district 1 points out.

The boy from district 4, Even, is smiling apologetically to Isak. It makes Isak’s heart jump a bit, but he stares back in a temper.

They stare each other for a bit too long time. “Fuck you”, Isak finally says before he walks to an elevator next to him. He’s pushes the button that has number 7 written on it. He’s not sure, but he assumes that it will take him to the floor dedicated to district 7. The elevator has walls and the door made of glass, and Isak watches the boy from district 2 wave at him while the elevator lifts.

Isak hates everything right now. He hates Capitol, he hates his stylist, he hates the arrogant career tributes.

Eskild is leaning against the wall opposite of the elevator, when Isak gets out. “That was spectacular!” he says, sounding enthusiastic.

“Yeah, sure. You can stop lying to me”, Isak answers. He looks around in the hallway, the decides quickly to go right before Eskild has time to speak again. From there he finds a luxurious living room and a dining room, but he has zero interest. He just wants to find somewhere he can be alone, somewhere he can think about his upcoming death and other nice stuff.

Takes a few minutes before Isak finds a bedroom. It’s probably his, and even if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t care. He rips his stupid costume off and digs into the bed. Doesn’t take long until Isak’s head is hurting from crying.

He hopes that this is just a sick dream, that he wakes up from his own bed in district 7. But he knows it isn’t a dream. This is real, this is his life.

This is his life and it will end very soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi & welcome back!!! i hope you enjoyed chapter 2
> 
> just let me know if you would like to know all of the tributes and which district they're from, so i might post a list or something!!
> 
> leave a comment to brighten up my day <3


	3. the training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again!!  
hopefully you enjoy the chapter 3! please leave a comment, it would make my day <3
> 
> like i said i'm currently very busy but i'm trying my best to update as often as i can!
> 
> i'm going to add the list of the tributes & their districts at the end of the chapter

****"There are many opportunities. You can train to use a bow, knives and other weapons you find. Just, please, don’t kill or harm anyone yet, it wouldn’t be fun”, the head trainer, Vigdis, tells. She’s standing in front of the 24 tributes, explaining about the training. 

Isak hasn't heard a half of her speech, because he’s not interested. Why would he waste his time to this completely useless shit? It’s not going to help him _ win, _because he’s not going to win. After the tribute parade, he lost his chances to get sponsors, so that’s it, there’s no idea to even try. Isak would just get his hands dirty. 

“So, has someone been killed here then?” Chris asks. William, the boy from district 1, laughs next to him. What good friends are they! Too bad, in the arena they will probably kill each other after they’ve killed every one else first. 

Vigdis puckers her brows. “Yes. But that was not the point. If you want to fight, fight with a trainer, not with another tribute. And as I already told you before, remember that surviving skills are as important as fighting skills! You’re free to start training now.” 

Isak stands still while the other tributes choose where they want to start. Most tributes are with their district partner, except for Isak and Emma, of course. The career tributes are already combined, six of them almost ready to go to the arena. Isak hates them, and hopes none of them wins. 

Isak finds a place he can sit. He knows he could have stayed in their floor and chill there, but Eskild would have dragged him to the training anyway. So, he settles for his fate, and watches the siblings from district 9 argue at the ‘food from the nature’ point. 

“Sana, you can’t be angry with me forever!” 

“You’re going to die, Elias! Did you _ really _ have to volunteer? I will die anyway, I don’t need you to die too!” 

“I’m going to protect you, sis. You’re going home. I promise!” 

Isak doesn’t hear Sana’s answer, because someone sits next to him, and his attention jumps to that. 

“Hello.” 

It’s Even. _ It’s fucking Even _ from the district 4. He probably came to find out what would be the easiest way to kill Isak. Even smiles to Isak, and it makes him feel uncomfortable, because for sure he’s not doing it just to be _ friendly. _ Isak looks away and doesn’t answer. 

“You don’t want to train, do you?” Even asks after a while. 

Isak turns his head back to towards him, tries to look annoyed in a cool way. He probably doesn’t look very convincing. “No use for it. And I guess you’re not training because you’ve been doing it for your entire life, right? Must get a bit boring.” 

Even gives a little laugh. He sounds cute, but that’s the last thing Isak wants to think right now. 

“True. I started the training immediately when I was able to walk. And my first toy was actually a knife. Not a real one, though.” 

“Yeah. Right.” 

Even raises his brows. “You don’t believe me?” 

Isak has no chance to answer, because someone shouts Even’s name. 

“Even! Are you coming?” It’s the girl from Even’s district. 

“I have to go, Sonja wants me to train with a bow. See you later”, Even says and stands up. 

“Whatever.” Isak watches Even walk away, and _ fuck _, even his back looks attractive. 

Sana and Elias have already left the ’food from the nature’ point, when Isak looks back there. After a few minutes, new tributes arrive. It’s the couple from district 10. 

“Do you think that in the arena there will be nature?” the girl asks, probably referring to the name of the point. 

The boy with dark curly hair shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know, Eva… They could be tricking us. The arena can be a desert or a glacier, who knows. The training points tell nothing about it.” 

The boy, Isak discovers his name is Jonas, seems clever. Isak listens to them and learns more than he probably would have if he had gone to the point by himself. 

When Jonas and Eva leave the point, Isak stands up too. He roams around the training hall, avoids the career tributes and observes the others. He finds out that surprisingly big amount of the tributes can’t even set a fire (Isak can, he’s the master of it, not that it would matter), and many of them suck with weapons. Isak finds that gratifying, but then he remembers the career tributes and their skills and is back to his ‘I won’t win anyway’ -mood. 

Finally, the first training day is over. Like planned, Isak did nothing but hovering around. And he doesn’t even regret it. 

The dinner is ready when Isak and Emma arrive back to their floor. Eskild looks excited. He sits alone in the table, Oddvard and Toril are somewhere else, probably having fun in the city. Linn is hanging out in the sofa. 

“Well, how did it go?” Eskild asks. Isak sits across him and starts getting food. There’s everything, and he has difficulties to choose what to eat. Back in home the food wasn’t always even eatable, specifically after his dad left. 

Emma doesn’t answer either to Eskild’s question. 

“Was it that bad?” 

Emma sighs. “Well, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed learning how to kill someone. But I may have learned something useful about surviving.” 

Eskild nods. “Isak?” he then asks. “What did you do?” 

“Nothing.” 

“What?” Eskild sounds a bit chocked. It’s funny. “What did you say?” 

“I did nothing. It won’t help me, so I don’t want waste my time and energy to it”, Isak just simply answers. He knows, he knew all the time, that Eskild would probably kill him for this.

“What the fuck Isak?” Eskild stands up. He looks really disappointed. “We seriously need to talk. You can’t keep going like that! Oh my god. You will die in the bloodbath!” 

Isak rolls his eyes. “And what’s the difference between dying in the bloodbath and dying in somewhere else?” 

Emma observes their conversation, clearly looking interested. She’s probably planning if in the arena she should cut Isak’s throat or stab him in the chest with a knife. 

Suddenly Eskild grabs Isak’s plate. “I’m not letting you eat if you don’t talk with me.” 

Isak sighs, he’s really hungry and wants his food back, but if he knows Eskild even a bit, he’s for real not letting Isak eat before they talk. And, Eskild would probably just tell him the same shit he already told, so he agrees. “Okay, but I’m not talking anywhere near her.” 

“What’s up with you guys? You probably haven’t talked a word to each other during the time you’ve been here.” 

Neither of them answers. Isak and Eskild move to Isak’s room, leaving Emma eat alone. 

“Okay Isak. Seriously. Your attitude _ sucks _. You’re not going to win if you keep floating in your self-pity”, Eskild says as soon as the door is closed. 

Self-pity? Isak’s just being realistic. “Why do you talk about me winning all the time? Not going to happen, you know it.” 

Eskild looks like he’s tired of fighting about this with Isak all the time. “I’m going to be honest with you now. I believe in you. You’re the most-likely-winning -tribute I have had to mentor, ever. You may not see it, but I can. You have a flame inside, and if you feed it, the fire flares. You’re grumpy, yeah, but you’re also persistent. That’s the most important thing you can have in the arena. There’s only one thing keeping you from winning.” 

Isak is actually pretty impressed about Eskild’s speech. “Hmm?” 

“You.” Of course. “If you think you’re not going to win, you’re not. The moment I heard my name in the reaping five years ago, I decided to win. My strategy was to play the funny, dumb, useless boy. No one would target me, because they thought I would die on my own since I was so stupid. I didn’t, because I’m not. I may seem like one, but I’m not an idiot, and neither are you.” 

Wow, okay, Eskild’s strategy was amazing. Isak wishes he had had made a strategy too. 

“I’m going to invest in you, not Emma. That may sound cruel, but only one of you can win, and you have better chances than she does. I can get you sponsors, if you just promise that you will at least try. Please.” Eskild is really begging now. 

Isak thinks. Eskild sounded pretty convincing, and now when Isak thinks about it, there might be truth too in his words. Isak saw today that not many tributes are brilliant with weapons or surviving skills. Isak knows how to use an axe. He’s familiar with knives too. And he can move in the woods. That will not help, if the arena has no woods, but now Isak just has to hope really hard that it will. 

Maybe he could have a chance. _ Maybe _, indeed, but that’s the best he can get. The only real thread is probably the career tributes, but if Isak survives long enough, they will start taking each other down. He hasn’t thought about that before. 

That could work. He could try, he could _ win. _

“Okay”, he finally says, but clearly sill hesitantly. “Okay. I’m in. I’m going to try to win.” 

Eskild smiles, but doesn’t look fully satisfied yet. Like he’s waiting Isak to say something else. 

Isak rolls his eyes. “Okay. I’m _ going to _ win.” The hesitation is now gone.

Eskild jumps up. “That’s what I’m here for, Isak!” He hugs Isak, Isak hugs him back a bit awkwardly. 

Now, when Isak has made the decision, he feels great. He feels better than he did earlier, and he starts regretting that he did nothing today. Luckily, he still has two days to train, and hell yes, he’s going to spent that time well because he's is going to win. He’s going to beat the career tributes, he’s going to beat Emma, he’s going to beat everyone. 

Isak smiles, but then he remembers the reason he lost his self-confident in the first place. “We just have one problem. No one will be my sponsor after last evening. I looked ridiculous! A tree hat that spits glitter leaves!?” 

Eskild looks a bit confused. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t anyone want to be your sponsor? The hat was amazing! People from Capitol love weird things, if you haven’t noticed, and if the hat and the leaves weren’t weird, then I don’t know what is. They loved you, trust me. Your cuteness plus a good first impression equals sponsors!” 

Isak isn’t sure if he believes that, but he has no time to be insecure anymore. 

“Sponsors will get you far, but at the beginning, the more important thing is alliances. When there are 15 or even 20 tributes out there, depends on how the bloodbath turns out to be, many of them united, you won’t survive long by yourself. So, do you have any possible alliances on your mind?” 

Eskild knows what he’s doing, even though this is only his fifth time mentoring tributes. Isak is impressed.

He’s seen alliances in television. They don’t always work out as wanted, but if Eskild wants him to have alliances, then he’ll have them. “Well”, Isak thinks. “There is this couple from district 10. The boy seems very clever.” 

“Oh, Eva and Jonas? Yeah, I think they’re cleverer than what they let people see. Do you think it could work?” 

“Do you think I’m not clever enough to be with them?” 

Eskild laughs. “No. I’m just concerned if you’re able to handle as much kissing and crying as there will be if you’re with them. They’re in love and in their final journey together.” 

“That’s true and it’s sad”, Isak says. “Okay. What about the tributes from district 9?” 

“Hmm. Elias and Sana, the brother and the sister. The girl is clever, I’m sure about that. Not so sure about the boy, he’ll probably kill you while you sleep if he thinks you are a slightest thread to his sister.” 

“Well, do you have any suggestions? The career tributes aren’t even an option, and I can’t remember anyone else.” 

“What about Emma?” 

“Are you insane? She would kill me as soon as possible.” 

Eskild sighs. “What’s the thing between you two? Did she kill your girlfriend out of envy?” 

“I’m gay.” It just comes out of Isak’s mouth, he didn’t mean it to. But it’s true, and for some reason his unconscious wanted Eskild to know it. 

“Okay.” Eskild nods and smiles. “That’s great, me too. Is that the reason why you guys hate each other?” 

“We both did some things.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not really.” 

“Okay. Back to the alliances. Is it okay if I talk to the mentor of Jonas and Eva? I know her well.” 

“Yeah. They’re my best chance.” Isak’s stomach growls. “Are we ready with our talk? Can I eat now?” 

Eskild smiles with satisfaction. “Yes, you can eat now.” 

\- 

Isak has never had a cup of coffee better than this one. It tastes like the coffee at home but ten million times better. 

It’s morning. Isak slept better than he thought he would. Partly because of the conversation between him and Eskild, and partly because the bed was so soft and nice. 

Eskild walks to the kitchen. “Isak and Emma! Good morning! Are you ready for today?” He stops for a second when he notices that Emma isn’t in the room. “Oh. Well are _ you _ ready? You should be.” 

“I’m as ready as I can be.” 

“That’s what I like to hear. Go there and – “, Eskild stops when Emma enters the room. “Good morning to you also!” 

Emma doesn’t answer, she just grabs an apple and sits down to the sofa. She looks tired and angry. 

“You didn’t sleep so well?” Eskild asks. 

“Yeah well, how do you expect me to sleep when I could be dead in five days?” 

Eskild doesn’t say anything. He looks very uncomfortable, and there’s a long silence between the three of them. Isak breaks it by taking the juice jug and pouring his glass full of fresh orange juice. 

“Do you want some?” he asks Eskild. Emma stares him angrily, like it would be a crime to talk. “Didn’t ask you.” She rolls her eyes. 

Eskild sighs. “Seriously. What’s wrong with you? I’m surprised you haven’t tried to kill each other yet.” 

Neither of them answers and the atmosphere is tense. Isak takes a sip from his juice and gives Eskild a warning look. 

“Yeah. Whatever. Just try to eat so today will be easier. You need energy -” 

Emma stands up and walks out of the room a bit over dramatically for Isak. It’s his time to roll his eyes. 

“Try not to make her your biggest enemy”, Eskild says quietly after she's gone. “I know I said I’ll invest in you but it doesn’t mean she can’t be dangerous as well.” 

“Yeah, I know. I just – “ 

“And oh, don’t kill her right away.” 

“That’s not what I – “ 

“It doesn’t look good for sponsors. They want you to be strong and all that stuff but they still want you to be a _ human. _ Not some emotionless killing machine. So, save your revenge for later.” 

“Okay. Yeah. Not what I meant but sure.” 

“Great. Now, eat.” 

\- 

Isak has a hard time deciding where he’ll start. He leaves the ‘food from the nature’ point as the last one since he learned so much already by listening Jonas yesterday. He walks around for a few minutes, ignores Even and finally goes to a point named “knives”. He's familiar with knives, actually, or at least knives with wood. When things got bad at home, he used to go out and carve little wooden figures. He’s not new to throwing knives either, but he’s never actually _ practiced _it. He takes one, checks it out and when he's ready, he chooses a goal doll and tries his best. 

It flies better than Isak expected. It’s not a bull’s eye, but it’s not that far away from it. Isak takes few more knives. All of his throws are good, surprisingly, but the fifth one is the best. It flies straight to the center of the doll’s chest. Wow. The next one flies to the doll’s forehead. 

So, Isak’s not a completely useless, that’s good. But how is he supposed to be able to throw a knife at a _ real human being? _ It’s a completely different than a doll. 

Isak realises he’s being looked at. Jonas and Eva are standing a few meters away from him, and they’re both smiling a bit. Jonas gives him an approving nod; Eskild has probably already talked to their mentor about the possible alliance, who has probably talked to Jonas and Eva. Does the nod mean Jonas wants him to be his alliance? Isak hopes so. 

“You should try”, he says to Jonas. Jonas nods again. 

He feels a pair of eyes follow him as he walks away from the ‘knives’ point, and of course it’s Even. He’s leaning against the wall, like he’s observing Isak. When he realises that Isak has noticed him, he smiles and starts to walk towards him. Isak’s stomach jumps around a bit. He turns around and looks for a place to hide, because he really doesn’t want to talk to Even right now. In fact, he’d rather never speak to Even again. He’s a distraction, he’s an _ enemy, _and Isak doesn’t like the way he makes him feel. 

Even takes a few running steps and reaches Isak. “Hello.” 

Isak turns towards him and rolls his eyes. He doesn’t say anything. 

“So, you’re pretty good with knives, huh? I bet your first toy was a knife, too.” 

“Yes, yes it was. Except it was a real one, unlike yours. Ever since I was born, my favourite hobby has been practicing how to kill people. Isn’t that _ fun?” _

Even laughs. “If words could kill, you’d be the winner for sure.” 

Isak sighs. “What do you want, the boy from the district 4?” 

“My name is Even”, he says and pretends to be hurt by Isak’s words. 

“What do you want then, _ Even?” _

Even smiles again. “Can’t I praise you a little bit? I think you were good with the knives. That’s it.” 

Isak blushes. “Um. Okay?”

Even must be the most confusing person he’s ever met. They’re going to be killing each other in a few days and he just keeps smiling and talking to him. Maybe he likes to connect with people before killing them. Isak tries hard not to help him with that. “Where did you leave your _ friends _?” 

“They’re not my friends”, Even answers a bit too sharply, then softens is voice. “Or I don’t know. Practicing?” 

“Whatever.” 

There’s a short silence between them before Even talks again. “Can I ask you something?” 

Isak puckers his brown. “Yeah?” 

“What’s your name, the boy from the district seven?” 

Isak thinks for a moment. “Thor”, he says then. Why not to have a little fun? 

“Thor? Your name is Thor?” 

Isak has had time keeping a serious face. “Yes, Even. My name is Thor.” 

“Um. Okay. That’s a nice name... suits you.” 

Isak bursts into laughter. Even looks a bit confused. Then he seems to realise that Isak was teasing him. 

“Oh fuck off, Thor!” He’s laughing now as well. 

“Yes, I will. I have to practice more.” Isak smiles a little and starts to walk to the next point, ‘fishing’. 

“Thor! Seriously! What’s your real name?” Even shouts after him. 

Isak glances over his shoulder. He doesn’t understand why Even wants to know his name so badly, but what is there to lose if he tells it to him? “Isak.” 

“Should I trust you this time?” 

“Probably not!” 

Isak really _ hates _how Even makes him feel. He tries to stay cold, but at the same time Even brings a smile to Isak’s face that hasn’t been there for a long time. He doesn’t understand what Even wants, but does it really matter? He really hopes he doesn’t have to be the one to kill Even. 

Isak notices Emma for the first time since breakfast. She looks at him disapprovingly and angrily. Isak rolls his eyes at her, and she sighs so loudly the whole room probabaly hears her. 

He spends the rest of the day learning as many new skills as he can. He ties some knots, learns about new and dangerous plants and even tries to shoot with a bow (it doesn’t go too well but it’s okay). Instead of chopping wood with an ax he learns how to kill with it. He teaches Eva and Jonas how make a fire without fire-making tools. Sana stands a bit further away and listens, but Isak doesn’t mind. 

After the day, he hasn’t changed his mind about trying and winning and all that shit Eskild talks about. He’s self-confidence is actually pretty high at the moment; he apparently knows how to throw a knife and he’s pretty fucking good at setting a fire. Of course, he could still be much better with a lot of things, but if this is the best he can be, it has to be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten 
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad  
Iben Sandberg 
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg 
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim   
Sonja 
> 
> District 5: power   
Adam Malik   
Sara Nørrstelien 
> 
> District 6: transportation   
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal   
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth 
> 
> District 7: lumber   
Isak Valtersen   
Emma W. Larzen 
> 
> District 8: textiles   
Magnus Fossbakken   
Vilde Lien Hellerud 
> 
> District 9: grain   
Elias Bakkoush   
Sana Bakkoush 
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez   
Eva Kviig Mohn 
> 
> District 11: agriculture   
Mutasim Tatouti   
Jamilla Bikarim 
> 
> District 12: mining   
Yousef Acar   
Noora Amalie Sætre


	4. caesar flickerman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!  
i'm so sorry that it's been so long, but i've been extremely busy, i hope you understand!  
but here it it, chapter 4! i hope you enjoy it as much as i enjoyed writing it!  
please, leave a comment, that would make my day <3

Isak’s hands are sweaty. He’s sitting next to Emma in a room full of chairs and other tributes. They’re all waiting for their turn to the private training sessions. It’s their chance to show to the game makers how well they have trained. 

Isak has trained like hell, but he’s still not sure if it’s enough. For the sponsors, he probably doesn’t seem like much, or at least not yet, so he has to get a good score. 

“Even Bech Næsheim”, a lady voice says from a speaker. Isak watches as Even stands up and starts walking towards the door. When he passes Isak, he gets closer and whispers: “Good luck, Isak.” 

Isak gets shivers. He doesn’t have time to answers anything, before Even walks in. Within the few days Isak has learned that Even is pretty good with everything – a trident, knives, spears. The only exception is a bow and arrows. But that’s the case with the career tributes, they have trained this for years, of course their good with everything. Sometimes when Isak sees Even’s beautiful face he forgets that Even is basically raised to be a killer. He gets shivers again, this time not the good ones. 

Emma sighs loudly next to him. Isak turns his head to face her. 

“What? What’s your problem?” 

“My problem? I think you’re the one having a problem here. Does Eskild know that you’re being a bit too friendly with a career tribute all the time? It’s going to get you killed and I bet Eskild wouldn’t be too happy to hear about this since you’re his little pet.” 

“I don’t think it’s any of your business.” 

“Uhh, it is? I don’t want that stupid fish boy to kill you, I want to do it myself.” 

Fish boy? If the conversation wasn’t what is was being right now, he would have laughed. He knew Emma probably wanted to kill him, but this was the first time she had said it out loud. Isak isn’t sure how he’s supposed to feel. Scared? Amused? 

“I think you should keep your voice down.” 

“Why?” Emma stares at him right in the eyes. Her gaze feels intrusive, and Isak wants to look somewhere else but that would make him look weak. 

“I bet you don’t want to die before you’ve killed me, so it’s a stupid move to let everybody to know that we don’t... really get along.” Isak leans closer to Emma. “And how do you think Eskild would feel if I told him that you want to kill me?” 

Emma rolls her eyes. “I don’t care, Isak. Like I told you, _ you’re _ his little pet, not me. Do you think I haven’t noticed?” 

“Whatever, _ Emma _. Do whatever you want, go make your parents proud, but you’re not going to kill me.” 

Emma stares Isak for a moment before turns her head away. Neither of the say anything anymore. 

While they wait for their turns for the private session, Isak can’t stop thinking about their conversation. It kind of makes him anxious. He’s not sure if he should take Emma as a real thread. She has attitude, for sure, but she’s small, so unless she’s going to kill him while he sleeps, Isak’s pretty sure he could take her on a fight. He’s also not sure if he should tell Eskild about their conversation. Would it make any difference? He would probably just get more stressed and worried than what he already is. 

But the comment about Even is true. He has no idea why Even is being so nice to him. He also has no idea why Even’s making him feel the way he feels. Like Emma said, it’s probably going to get him killed, but in the training center it can’t hurt him. Right? 

Finally, Emma’s name is called and she gets up. 

“Good luck”, Isak says. At first, Emma looks at him a bit shocked, but then rolls her eyes. 

Soon it’s Isak’s turn. He forgot to be nervous after the conversation, he was too busy with other thoughts, but now when he stands up it hits again. As he walks towards the door, he’s heart starts jumping around like it’d gone crazy, he’s hands get sweaty. He stops for a second and takes a deep breath before he opens the door and walks in. 

As soon as the door closes behind him, it gets quiet. The game makers have stopped whatever they were doing, all of them starring at Isak. That just makes him even more nervous. He hasn’t really thought what he would show to the game makers, and now when he thinks about it, maybe he should have. He takes another deep breath and walks to the point with a lot of knives. 

He’s practised knife throwing a lot, and it has kind of became his main skill. He can somehow throw an axe, too, but it’s too heavy to be his main weapon. 

He doesn’t have that much time, so he takes the first knife. Many of the game makers have already lost their interest in him and started talking, but some of them are still paying attention while an avox girl fills their glasses with some thick liquid. It’s as red as blood. 

Isak takes a deep breath and throws his first knife, but his hands are still shaking and it flies five centimetres past the goal doll. He hears one of the game makers give a laugh and when he looks at them, almost everyone has lost their interest in Isak. It makes him frustrated. He’s just warming up. 

Isak needs to get a good score. He _ need _ s i t t o get sponsors, he knows that probably not many sponsors will notice him if he gets a bad score. He _ needs _ sponsors to win the Hunger Games. And to achieve those things, right now he _ needs _ the stupid game makers to pay attention to him. 

Isak thinks about “the flame inside him” Eskild talked about, and he feels that at this exact moment it flares and starts to burn inside him bigger and hotter than ever. He is going to win. 

He takes three knives with him and walks angrily to the point where he taught Jonas and Eva to make a fire. It doesn’t take long until there’s a fire, not as beautiful as inside him, but it’ll do. He watches it for a moment, takes the heat in. 

Finally, he takes his knives, carefully from the blade part. Luckily the handles are made of wood, and he lets the fire play around them until the handles catch the flame. He tries hard not to burn his hands. 

He goes back to the knife point, chooses a goal doll and throws the first knife with so much anger and passion that almost the whole blade sinks into the doll’s chest. The doll catches the fire and it lights up in seconds. The second one is almost as perfect throw as the first one. When he takes the final knife to his throwing hand, the fire gets too close and burns his palm. He winces from the sudden pain, but he can’t let it disturb him right now. 

The third doll is staring him challengingly, like saying “don’t you dare to throw that to me.” But Isak does. He throws the flaming knife once again straight to the center of the doll’s chest. The fire spreads and now there’s three dolls burning and lighting up the room. 

Isak smiles. He’s satisfied with his work. 

He turns to face the game makers. Talking has again stopped, and they’re starring at him with their mouths open. At least one of them smiles with satisfaction. 

“Can I go?” Isak asks and surprises himself with how steady and strong his voice sounds. 

None of them say anything. The smiling game maker finally nods, and Isak marches out. 

\- 

They are all sitting in the living room, Isak, Emma, Eskild, Isak’s stylist Oddvard, Emma’s stylist Toril and even Linn, waiting for the program to start. They’re going to get their training scores now. Isak has calmed down since his private session, and now he’s feeling a bit anxious. What if what he did was way out of the limits? He told Eskild about it, and at first Eskild was shocked, but then he was actually quite impressed. He had gotten Isak some expensive medicine for his burn even though Isak told him million times that he would be okay. 

“No, I need my future victor to be fine when he gets to the arena”, Eskild had said and after that Isak had given up. The burn had actually been aching, and after the medicine it was a lot better. Not fully healed, but still. 

“I’m so excited!” Eskild almost screams when, finally, Caesar Flickerman’s face appears to the TV screen. 

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! The time has finally come, we get to see the training scores of the tributes! HAHAHAA! Exciting, isn’t it? Not as exciting as tomorrow night, though. We’ll finally get to meet the tributes as I interview them!” 

Caesar Flickerman has been doing these programs and the interviews for as long as Isak can remember. He’s very good at his job, so it’s no wonder. This year his hair and lips are scarlet red. 

“Now, let’s get to the scores!” Caesar says, and Eskild leans towards the TV, like he would otherwise miss the scores. 

The first face on the screen is William from the district 1. He gets a ten, and so does Chris from district 2, of course they do, they’re career tributes. They always collect the best scores. The tributes from district 3 get lower scores, and then Even’s face pops to the screen. He, like his arrogant and stupid friends from district 1 and 2, gets a ten. Isak wonders which one of his deadly skills Even showed to the game makers. Sonja, the girl from his district, gets an eight. Then there’s tributes from the district 5 and 6, the one’s that Isak doesn’t really remember, and their scores are pretty low. 

Finally, it’s Isak’s turn. He’s afraid that the whole room is able to hear his beating heart. Eskild leans even closer to the TV. 

Eight. Isak gets an eight. It’s a better score Isak would have ever imagined. He’s now almost at the same category with the score than most of the female career tributes. 

“OH MY GOD! Isak! That is AMAZING!” Eskild screams and jumps around and hugs him. Isak can’t help but smile and hug Eskild back. Linn and Oddvard congratulate him as well. 

Isak almost misses Emma’s score, but just as the number disappears, he gets a glimpse of a number five. It’s better than what most of the girls before her got. Eskild goes to give her a hug, but she wiggles herself out it. 

Isak is so excited about his own score, that he forgets most of the scores of the other tributes. He remembers some of them though; the sister and brother from the district 9 get a seven and a six and the lovers from the district 10 get the same score than Isak and Emma: Jonas gets an eight and Eva a five. 

Not many of the scores are that great. The career tributes, Isak and Jonas are holding the top scores. Isak’s can’t stop thinking about the fact that he could actually get sponsors with his score. If he just manages to keep his head high through the whole game, he could _ actually _ have a chance to win. And he going to win, he has to. 

\- 

“Good morning Isak!” 

Isak opens his eyes slowly and turns his head to the direction of the voice. It’s Eskild, of course. 

“Mmmh?” 

“Rise and shine! It’s time to get ready for this evening!” 

Isak sits up slowly. “Yeah. Yeah.” 

“And we need to talk about the interview.” 

“What about it?” Isak rubs his eyes to wipe the sleep away. He slept better than any other night so far in the Capitol. 

“We need to make a strategy for it. How are you going to be remembered?” Eskild sits to Isak’s bed. 

Isak shrugs. He hasn’t thought about that. “Um. I don’t know. With my face?” 

Eskild laughs. “Yeah your face is nice indeed but all of the young girls that are going to fall for you are going to have a hard time to convince their parents to sponsor you just because of your face.” Eskild takes a break, then continues: “Sorry, I didn’t mean - “ 

“No, it’s fine. You’re right. Maybe I should pick one kind of a target audience. Not the young girls, though.” 

“What do you mean?” Eskild asks a bit confused. 

“I don’t know. I just – I mean, if I target a specific type of people wouldn’t I have higher chance to get sponsors? They will remember me and pick me as their favourite if I touch their heart or some shit like that, right? If I'm trying to please everyone, I'll probably end up being boring just like the rest of the tributes. Maybe someone will find me interesting but I'll compete about all of Capitol’s attention with the rest of them. But not of I pick a target. I probably won’t have much competition with that audience.” 

“Isak, you just might be wiser than I first thought!” Eskild hugs him. “Do you have any ideas, then?” 

“Maybe.” Isak smiles. 

They talk for an hour, and finally Isak gets so hungry they have to get out of the room. But it’s fine, because they have polished up their strategy. It’s _ good _, Isak thinks. But it couldn’t be anything else, he has to make a good impression, he has to be the star of the show. It’s going to be hard, since every tribute only has three minutes. 

Hours pass as Isak showers and his hair gets done. Eskild keeps jumping around and stressing about every possible thing. Isak tries to stop that stress sticking to himself. Finally, Oddvard, his stylist, leads him to a dressing room. It’s way too big just for a one tribute, bigger than his home back at district 7. 

He has tried not to think about district 7 these past days, and he’s been surprisingly successful. He doesn’t want to think about what his family, neighbours, friends think. He doesn’t want to imagine how they all pity him, how his dad probably plays a martyr who lost his son to the Capitol. He doesn’t want to think how district 7 feels like his home, but at the same time it’s as far from as anything can be. 

“And this”, Oddvard says with his weird Capitol accent, “is your costume! Isn’t it amazing?” He points the pieces of clothing hanging on the wall. 

Isak can’t disagree. It’s much nicer than his tree costume back at the tribute parade. In fact, it’s amazing. It has straight high waited dark brown pants that are shining very lightly, caused by a green glitter in them. The shirt is dark green, made from _ very _translucent chiffon. It has branches and leaves, and in the front of the shirt there’s frills and the detail that crowns the shirt; 3D flowers. His shoes are dark green, and have a few flowers in them as well. 

“Wow. That’s... wow. It’s beautiful. Really. I love it.” 

For a moment Oddvard looks a bit surprised, Isak bets that he has heard about his comment about the three costume. Then he smiles brighter than the sun, his glitter lipstick shines in the colours of a rainbow. “Thank you, Isak! And oh, I almost forgot this.” He takes his pink handbag and takes out a... crown? No, it’s more like a wreath with leaves and flowers matching the rest of his outfit. “I just finished it today.” 

Oddvard helps Isak get dressed and places the werath on his head. Only after that Isak is allowed to look at mirror. He almost forgets to breath when he sees himself. He looks _ amazing. _ He looks _ beautiful. _He looks like somebody to remember. 

“Thank you, Oddvard. I really love it.” Isak has never looked as radiating, as good, as now. 

“That warms my heart! I really worked hard for this one.” Oddvard kisses him on the cheek. “Now, go and show Capitol how amazing you are!” 

Oddvard takes Isak to a room where the tributes are supposed to wait for their turn to the interviews. It has numbered chairs for every district and multiple TVs on the walls so the waiting tributes can also see the interviews. 

Many of the tributes are already there, including Even. He’s sitting on his chair, looking more beautiful than ever before. He’s wearing navy blue suit, and whenever he moves, the fabric moves with him and makes the suit look like it’s made from the ocean. When Even notices Isak, he smiles and mouths “you look amazing” to him. Isak blushes and rolls his eyes, but smiles back. Even just neves stops to mess with his head. 

He sits next to Emma. Even though Isak would never say it out loud, Emma looks stunning as well. She’s dressed in a long, light green dress that has multiple layers on its hem, making it look like a green soft cloud. The makeup is quite natural, her eyeshadows have the same green on it. 

Neither of them says anything. Their conversation from yesterday comes back to Isak’s mind, and it makes him a bit uncomfortable. He still hasn’t decided if Emma is an actual threat or not. He doesn’t like her, and she doesn’t like him, but could she be so bitter, that she actually would try to hunt him down? 

Isak watches as Caesar Flickerman gets the show started. He smiles and laughs and talks, and the audience cheers at him. Isak is starting to get nervous again. There’s going to be a lot of people watching the interviews live, but every person in every district is going to watch it from their TVs as well. Isak is going to have all of Panem watching him. 

Mari, from the district 1 is the first one to go. Then there’s William, who makes Isak want to puke. He’s not ashamed to show his cruelness. Chris from the district 2 makes probably every girl in the whole Capitol fall in love with him, and it makes Isak want to puke as well. 

Soon it's Even’s turn. He smiles, shakes hands with Caesar Flickerman and sits down. His suit waves around like the sea. 

“Even, welcome! Your suit, it’s amazing, like the ocean. Does it remind you of home?” 

Even nods. “Yeah, but in a good way”, he says, still smiling. “It reminds me of the sea and how the salty water always burns my eyes, and how the wind messes my hair. It’s really beautiful there.” 

Caesar looks amazed. “We believe that, don’t we?” The audience cheers. “Is that what pushes you forward? In the game.” 

Even thinks for a moment. “I don’t know, if I'm being honest. I want to go back home, for sure, but here... Here I could fulfil my dreams.” 

Caesar looks interested. “Dreams? Tell us more!” 

Even smiles again. “I love movies. I have always loved, even though we don’t see them that often. One day I hope to make one of my own.” 

“What would your movie be about, then?” 

“Love, for sure.” The audience cheers and screams again. The girls are probably falling for him too, dreaming of being his loved one if he wins. 

“That is interesting! We really hope to see that, Even. Speaking of love”, Caesar leans closer to Even. “Do you have anyone special on your mind?” 

Even thinks again. “I’m not sure.” He makes a mysterious look to the audience, and it goes crazy. 

“Tell us more! Is she back on the district 4?” 

Even shakes his head. “What would a love story be if it wasn’t tragic?” he says and Caesar is just about to ask more, when Even’s time is up. 

“Thank you, Even, from the district 4!” 

Even leaves the stage smiling and waving to the audience. His interview makes Isak a bit confused. What did he mean with a tragic love story? Was Even trying to say that he fancies someone _ here _? 

Emma goes before Isak. She talks about home, her past and dreams for the future. She’s okay, spicy, but a bit boring, Isak thinks. 

Then it’s Isak’s turn to go to the stage, make Capitol love him. The moment he walks to the stage reminds him a bit of the chariot rides, it’s almost as intensive. The bright lights and cheering are overwhelming, and he hast to stop and take a deep breath. He’s hands are sweaty, heart beating so hard it’s probably going to jump out of him at any second. Caesar seems to notice that, because he stands up and walks next to him. 

“Isak! Let’s welcome Isak from the district 7! Come here. You look amazing!” 

Isak sits down. He tries hard to only focus on Caesar and forget about the rest of the Panem watching the show. He has to nail the interview. “Thank you, Caesar. I feel amazing as well.” He smiles. 

“You remind me a bit of... of a forest fairy from the books I read when I was young. Doesn’t he! Hahahaa!” The audience cheers. “Do you have those in the district 7?” 

Isak laughs. “No, unfortunately we don’t. But that would be amazing!” 

“Hahaa! So, Isak. You got pretty good score from the private session. What’s your secret?” 

Isak’s probably not supposed to talk about it. Not because the other tributes wouldn’t know his skill, they do, but because he’s still not sure if what he did was okay. “I just showed them my secret forest fairy skills, that’s it.” The audience laughs. Why? Isak isn’t even that funny. His heart is still beating fast, but Caesar has made him a bit more relaxed. He’s surprised how steady his voice has been the whole time. 

“That’s exciting! Do you have any other secrets, Isak? Maybe a secret girlfriend? We love a good secret!” 

Isak thinks. This is the moment he could start implementing the strategy he and Eskild made. This is the moment he has to do it. “Well, there is one I have told no one about.” 

Caesar looks excited. “Ohhhh, there is? Tell us! We promise, we won’t tell anyone.” He winks his eye. The audience screams out of enthusiasm. 

Isak tries hard to keep his hands still, to look calmer than what he is. “Caesar, have you ever had this secret that just engraves your soul? You want to let it out but you’re just too afraid, and don’t even know why. It keeps you awake and sometimes even the thought of somebody finding out makes you anxious.” 

Caesar looks confused. “I haven’t. Tell me more”, he says, now more calmly. 

“I feel like I need to get this out before the game. I’ve been hiding for so long, and I don’t want to live – or die – ”, the audience gasps, “in a lie. I bet nobody wants that.” Isak’s smile is long gone. 

“Yeah, I bet nobody wants that too.” Caesar sounds like his heart is breaking. “And now is the perfect time to let go of your secret.” 

Isak takes a deep breath. He knows he has to do this, otherwise his and Eskild’s strategy will be as good as nothing. He probably hasn’t done that good impression with his forest fairy shit, so he needs his audience. His _ own _ audience. 

He leans closer to Caesar, like actually telling the secret only to Caesar. He’s making it more dramatic, for Capitol. “Caesar, promise me you won’t tell this to anyone”, the audience laughs again, and Isak takes a deep breath, like to prepare himself “but I’m gay.” After that he closes his eyes. 

The words are out. Isak expected it to feel... more dramatic? But he doesn’t really feel anything. His secret is out and it’s kinda okay. He maybe even feels a bit relieved? What the told Caesar, it was all true. Well, if you don’t count the part of “having told no one” about it. But now it’s out and he doesn’t have to play anyone anymore. 

The audience holds its breath for a moment, and then they start cheering louder than ever, and only tehn Isak reopens his eyes. One young guy stands up and shouts something Isak doesn’t understand. 

Caesar smiles. “Thank you for telling me your secret! It’s safe with me. Now, I have to ask, do you have a secret boyfriend then, maybe?” 

Isak shakes his head. “I don’t. I wish I had, but maybe that would be... a bit too tragic? Or what do you think? A tragic love story?” Maybe it was a risky thing to say, but it just kind of slips out of his mouth. It can’t hurt him, to find out what Even is doing. _ If _ he’s doing anything. 

“Well, that would be something. It’s tragic enough that you’ve been hiding your secret for so long! Right?” 

Isak has no idea how the audience manages to make its scream sound like it’s sorry for Isak. But that’s good, maybe he touched someone. Someone, that has gone through the same thing. Someone, who will sponsor him. 

Just as Caesar is about to ask something about his family, Isak’s time is up and luckily, he doesn’t have to answer. He doesn’t want to think what his family is thinking right now. Are they proud? Probably not. Maybe disappointed, shocked? It doesn’t really matter. 

Even stares at him shamelessly, smiling slightly, as Isak gets up on the stand behind the stage. What is going on inside his head? A tragic love story, at least. But what else? Maybe he’s, just like Emma, planning how to kill Isak and hiding it behind those smiles. 

Isak smiles back to him, before he goes to stand next to Emma. 


	5. the last day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!
> 
> i'm so so sorry that it takes forever for me to post. i'm just so busy, and i want to write the chapters properly
> 
> i know this story will be harsh, but i still hope you enjoy it. i really put thought into it, and love writing it!
> 
> please leave a comment if you liked this chapter, it would be amazing <3

Isak can’t sleep. Of course he can’t, it’s the last night before the arena. He stares the ceiling for at least ten minutes, his mind spinning around. He thinks about the moment Linn pulled his name out of the ball of glass and gets shivers. It’s only been few days since he left district 7, but it feels like forever. 

He misses the smell of the woods back at home. He misses how the soft ground felt under his bare feet in summer. He doesn’t miss the terrible bread they have every morning, though. Not yet. Or maybe he does, after all it’s part of his home. If he wins, no, _ when _ he wins, he doesn’t have to eat that bread ever again. 

Isak gets up. There’s no use to just lay in bed with his thoughts. He might as well do something, maybe wonder around a bit. He doesn’t want to start to overthink, it could be dangerous. 

He finds his clothes, and quietly opens the door. It’s dark, everybody else has probably been asleep at least for two hours now. He walks to the elevator and chooses floor number 0, where the lounge is. He hopes no one else is there. 

But, of course, someone else is there already. Isak walks out of the elevator and sees a familiar shape of a person standing next to a large window, like admiring the view even though it’s dark outside. His heart skips a beat. For a moment, Isak thinks about turning around and going back to floor 7, but he decides to stay. It’s too tempting. 

He walks a bit closer, and says: “You can’t sleep either, huh?” 

Even turns around and smiles. Isak gets those good shivers again. “Is there really anyone who can sleep? In a night like this.” 

Isak shrugs and walks to the window. “Maybe your friends William and Chris?” 

Even laughs but doesn’t answer. After all, he’s a career tribute just like William and Chris. He turns back to the window. 

“What are you doing here? Admiring the view?” Isak asks. 

Even glances Isak, smiling mysteriously. “I don’t know. Maybe I was hoping to find you here?” 

Isak blushes. Why does Even have to be like this? And why does Isak care? 

“Follow me”, Even says and walks to the elevator. Isak doesn’t hesitate to follow him. 

The ride to the top floor is quiet. Isak tries hard not to stare at Even, but it’s not easy when Even is starring at _ him. _ Shamelessly, for the whole ride. 

When they step out of the elevator, Isak finally asks: “Where are we going?” 

Even smiles. “You’ll see.” 

“Oh, now I get it. You’re going to kill me.” Isak says it lightly, but could it actually be possible? That Even would kill him, maybe with William and Chris. Possibly he should run away, but he can’t. Even is too interesting. 

“Oh no, you figured it out!” 

Isak follows Even to a staircase, and on top of that there’s a door. Even opens it for Isak, bows for him when he walks past. Isak smiles. 

“Welcome.” 

They’re in some kind of a balcony, actually they’re on the rooftop of the training centre. Isak looks around and it is _ beautiful _. The balcony has a glass railing and there’s flowers everywhere, white roses mostly. And the best part; they can see the whole Capitol from there. The sky is dark, but the city is still alive. There are colourful lights everywhere, they spread as far away as Isak can see. He sits down to the floor to admire the view. 

“Wow.” 

“I know.” Even sits next to him. “My stylist told me about this, and I’ve been coming here every night.” 

Isak can’t get enough of the city. There are pink and green and blue and yellow and purple lights and it’s just beautiful. Different kind of beautiful than what Isak is used to: back at home the stars and birds and trees were beautiful. This is new. 

They just sit there for a moment, before Even speaks. “Is it true?” 

“What?” Isak glances at Even. He’s almost as beautiful as the city, he thinks. He tries to drive that thought off but when it doesn’t go anywhere, he just lets it be. 

“What you said during the interview.” 

Isak knows what he means and feels a bit offended. “What? Of course it’s true. Why would I lie about that?” 

“It was brave.” Isak feels Even starring at him. “I don’t know if I would have been able to do the same.” 

Isak blushes again. “Uh, thanks.” 

Does that mean what Isak thinks it does...? He doesn’t ask. It’s not really his business. Instead, he says: “And you like tragic love stories.” 

Even gives a dry laugh. “Yeah. There’s something about them. I mean, what would a love story be if it wasn’t tragic?” 

“A love story?” 

“But what makes a basic love story so interesting?” 

Isak and Even are now starring at each other. Isak shrugs. “The love part of it?” 

“That’s so boring! There’s basic and boring love everywhere. I want more to the story.” 

“But how could love be boring? It’s _ love _, after all.” 

“Have you been in love, then?” 

“What?” 

“You? Have you ever been in love?” 

“I haven’t.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Have you been in love then?” 

“Yeah, once. It was boring.” 

Isak laughs. “Okay. And that’s why you want a tragic love story.” 

“Isak, at this point, do you think I have any other options?” 

Now they’re starring each other again. Isak feels like he’s drowning into Even’s eyes, his heart beating too fast. “Well, if you win, then yeah.” 

Even shakes his head. 

Isak doesn’t know what to say. He almost forgot who Even was before that comment: a tribute, supposedly his enemy. 

Even is so hard to read, he has no idea what is going on inside his head. Why did he take Isak up here? Why is he talking about _ love _ to Isak? Isak shouldn’t let him fuck up with his mind, but it’s hard. It’s hard when Even is so nice and mysterious and hot and beautiful. And it’s dangerous. 

“Maybe I should go back to sleep. There’s still few hours left”, Isak finally says. He had started to feel tired. 

“Yeah. I’ll stay up here for a bit longer.” Even looks at Isak, it almost seems like he’s hesitating with something. But nothing happens and Isak gets up. 

“Goodnight, Even. And thank you for showing me this place.” 

\- 

Eskild brings Isak a cup of coffee to bed in the morning. 

“So. Today is a big day”, Eskild says. He sits down to Isak’s bed. 

“Let’s not talk about that.” Isak is, surprisingly, less tired than what he thought he would be after only a few-hour-sleep. He doesn’t want to use his energy to think what’s about to happen today. There’s nothing they can do about it. 

He takes a sip from his coffee. It burns his mouth, but he doesn’t care. He needs it, the perfectly bitter taste. “Did our plan work?” 

“I not entirely sure yet, but I think it did. My friends from Capitol are asking about you. Many of them went through what you did, so they feel connected to you. One of them even announced that if you win, he’ll marry you.” 

Isak gives a laugh. “That’s nice. You’ll be my best man, then.” 

“Ah, I have a perfect outfit for that! And you could be a tree.” 

They both laugh. For a moment, Isak feels like he’s at home again. Fooling around with his few friends, forgetting about every horrible thing in the world. But that feeling is quickly gone, and he’s sitting in his bedroom in the training centre again. 

“I talked to the mentor of Eva and Jonas”, Eskild says when the hilarity is gone. “She was impressed with your score and thought that an alliance between you and them is a great idea. She had actually thought about that too, an alliance with you and Emma. I told her that if she wants an alliance with you, she has to forget about Emma. So, we made a deal; you have an alliance with Eva and Jonas, at least for the beginning of the game. It’s helpful, but you can’t rely on them too much. At some point they’re either going to kill you, if you don’t kill them first, or they run and leave you behind. But at first, you’re useful for them too. Just remember to be careful.” 

Isak had almost forgotten about the alliance thing. “Really?” He’s still not sure what to think about alliances, but he trusts Eskild. In a way it’s calming to know he doesn’t have to be alone, but he still has to be careful. “Thank you, Eskild.” 

He wonders that if Even wasn’t part of the obvious career tribute alliance, would they be alliances. 

“Of course.” 

“My guru”, Isak adds and smiles. 

“Your guru.” Eskild laughs, but Isak thinks he sees a glimpse of a tear in Eskild’s eyes. Isak knows he’s trying to hide his stress and worry as best as he can for Isak, and he appreciates that. 

“Eskild”, Isak says. “I’ll be fine.” Isak doesn’t know that, but he hopes so, he doesn’t have any other option. 

“Yeah. I hope so. I mean, I know that. I just, I need you to come back. You’ve been the best tribute I’ve guided. You’ve became a friend to me, Isak. I’ve tried to resist that feeling because, well, as a mentor it’s never good to get too attached to a tribute since they usually just die. But I trust in you, Isak. I believe in you.” 

There’s a lump in Isak’s throat. He blinks his eyes, trying not to cry. “Thank you, Eskild”, he says quietly. “Seriously. Thank you for everything. Without you... I don’t know.” 

Eskild hugs Isak. He wipes his tears away. “Remember what I said. You have a flame inside. Let it flare.” 

Isak nods. He _ needs _ to win. If not for himself, for Eskild then. He needs to see his new friend again. 

Eskild gets up and walks to the door. “You should eat something before you leave. Oddvard will come and get you soon.” 

Isak nods again. “I will.” 

There’s a moment of silence. They both know this is when they’ll separate. 

“Goodbye Isak. We’ll see each other again. Stay alive. Oh, and may the odds be ever in you favor.” Eskild smiles, and then leaves the room, closes the door behind him. 

It’s the last time Isak sees Eskild. 

For now, at least. 

\- 

The training centre is far away. Isak is sitting in a hovercraft with eleven other tributes. Emma is not there, but that’s only good. 

He’s listening William and Chris talk about the girls they’ll miss from their districts. Really? That’s what they’ll miss most from home? 

“Ah, I really miss Thea. I mean, Ulla is a lot nicer but Thea... She’s a victory”, WIlliam says. 

Chris nods. “She sounds amazing.” 

“Yeah, I know.” 

“Almost as good as my Maria.” 

A blonde girl from district 12 sitting next to Isak sighs very loudly. Her name is Noora, Isak remembers. 

“What?” William asks her sharply. 

Noora rolls her eyes. “Stop talking about girls like they’re a ‘victory’. You sound like a loser. I bet your moms wouldn’t be proud of you even if you won the Hunger Games so now you have to brag with girls. That’s just sad.” 

Another blonde girl, Vilde from district 8, gasps next to Noora. She whispers her something like: “Stop, he’ll kill you first!” 

William just stares at Noora, doesn’t say anything. Probably fantasises about killing her, and then bragging with it. Isak agrees with Noora, but it wasn’t a wise thing to say. Especially to a career tribute. 

“Okay”, William just says, his voice blank. 

Chris next to him laughs. “Okay”, he repeats. William gives him a look and Chris quiets down. 

The rest of the ride is quiet. Nobody says anything. Isak’s left arm is still hurting a bit from a tracker that was placed there before. He stares the window next to him even though he can’t really see anything, since there’s black blinds over it. He just can’t look at the faces he’ll be killing soon. Or the faces that’ll be killing him soon. He’s not sure which one is worse. 

Finally, the hovercraft lands. Their safety belts open automatically, and so does the door. There’s a man in a white uniform waiting outside with their stylists. Or no, not outside, in the catacombs that go below the arena. Oddvard is the closest one to the craft, so Isak leaves first. He follows Oddvard through the rambling catacombs, and finally they arrive to his launch room. 

Launch room. That’s what they call it in Capitol. In the districts it’s called Stockyard; place animals go before slaughtering. Isak tries hard not to think about that. He’s not an animal, he’s not only a pawn. Or maybe he is, but he doesn’t want to be. 

His Stockyard looks surprisingly comfy. It has a huge green sofa, and a wallpaper of a forest. There’s even bird-singing coming out of a speaker. Capitol is really trying to keep it’s... animals peaceful before the slaughtering. 

In the right corner of the room there’s a circle metallic plate on the floor. Waiting for Isak to step on it, ready to rise to the arena. There’s still few hours left before that. Before the arena. 

“We should get ready”, Oddvard says with his Capitol accent. _ We. _It’s not like Oddvard is coming with him. 

“Yeah”, Isak just says. “Yeah.” 

He showers, tries to enjoy the warm water and smell of lemon for the last time. After that there’s a whole meal setting just for him and Oddvard. There are baked potatoes, curry rice, salmon, lamb and citron sauce, chicken wings, hot chocolate, lemonade, ice cream, some soft chocolate cake that Oddvard calls mudcake and everything Isak could’ve only dreamed back at district 7. He forces himself to eat as much as he can, but it’s not easy. There’s an odious feeling of terror in his stomach. He tries to keep his thoughts positive; not think about the fact that in few hours he could be dead. Cold as a stone. 

Or Even could be dead. They both could be dead. 

“I’m sorry that I said that your tree costume was ugly", Isak says when they both have finished their meal. 

Oddvard lifts his eyebrows. His lips are sparkling with green glitter. “You did?” 

“Yeah. But I mean, it _ was _awful. Compared to that outfit you made me for the interview.” 

Oddvard laughs. He sounds like a dying duck. “Thank you, Isak!” 

“Constructive feedback? For future.” 

“Ah, yes Isak. But you’ll be giving me constructive feedback soon again, won’t you? I have an amazing outfit ready for a victor.” Oddvard smiles. 

Isak tries to smile back at him. “Let’s hope so.” 

“Let’s hope so!” He toasts his empty glass. “Are you ready, then?” 

Oddvard helps Isak get dressed. His outfit contains black combat boots, a green long sleeve (Oddvard calls it merino), and a jacket and pants that are both grayish green and feel like they might be water resistant. He has a black number 7 on both of his sleeves and in the back. 

“I didn’t design this, by the way”, Oddvard says. He looks at Isak thoughtfully, walking around him. “Hmm. In the arena, there might be a forest of some kind. I don’t know. Or a dessert. No, definitely not a dessert. Nor a glazier. Oh, maybe swamp! Hard to say. It could be anything!” 

The outfit is surprisingly comfortable. Isak tries to move around, and it doesn’t make a sound. Even the boots are soundless. “That’s good, right?” 

“Yeah, in away. Other tributes won’t hear you but on the other hand you won’t hear them.” 

Isak is just about to answer, when the bird singing stops and there’s a woman’s voice in the speakers. 

“Tributes have five minutes till launch.” 

The terrible feeling in Isak’s stomach is immediately back, even worse than before. Five minutes, and everything he knew will be left behind forever. If he comes back, he’ll be changed. Everything will be changed. Maybe he won’t even recognise himself anymore. Or his home, maybe he’ll forget how it smells, how it feels. 

“You’ll do great, Isak”, Oddvard says. He hugs Isak, kisses him on cheek and leaves a green glitter mark there. Isak wipes it away gently. 

Isak nods. He walks slowly towards the metallic plate in the corner of the room. He stops, and stares at it like something would happen. Like it would disapear. 

“One minute.” 

Isak takes a breath in and out, in and out. 

“Goodbye Oddvard. Tell Eskild and Linn I said goodbye.” 

He takes a step. The second he’s at the plate, a glass rises and surrounds him all around. It feels like he’s under water. It gets harder to breath. He doesn’t turn to see Oddvard again. 

In and out, Isak breathes, in and out. His heart feels like it could stop beating at any second, and at the same time it beats faster than ever before. 

In and out. _ Breathe. _ In and out. _ You _ _ have _ _ to be calm when you enter there. _

_ " _Thirty seconds.” 

In and out._ Just breathe. _

Isak closes his eyes. 

_ Home. He smells the forest after the rain. He almost feels the wind, the soft ground. _

In and out. 

“Twenty seconds.” 

Isak opens his eyes. 

“Okay”, he says quietly. _ Okay. You can do this _. 

In and out. 

_ I’m not Capitol’s pet or a pawn. _

“Ten seconds.” 

In and out. 

“Nine, eight, seven...” 

_ I’m Isak Valtersen. _

“Six, four, three...” 

_ I'm from district seven. _

“Two, one.” The plate starts to lift. 

_ And I came here to win. _

The plate stops. A bright light blinds Isak for a second. 

He’s up. He’s there. He’s in the Hunger Games and the game is about the begin. 

Isak feels his heart beating. The terrible feeling in his stomach is suddenly gone. 

_ The flame. Let it flare. _

Isak breathes in and out.


	6. the cornucopia bloodbath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! here's some quarantine reading for you, hope you enjoy it <3  
if you do, please leave a comment, they always make my day better and inspire me!  
i'll try to update soon, thank you for all the support! means a lot
> 
> ps if you want to remind yourself, who comes from which district, you can find the info on the notes of chapter 3!
> 
> disclaimer:  
from now on, the story will get rougher, as you all probably know  
it'll be harder to write, too, because all of the characters are very dear to me  
but nevertheless, i still really enjoy writing this, and i hope you can enjoy this too <3

Sixty seconds. 

That’s how much time Isak had when he entered the arena, before the game starts. He has probably used at least ten seconds to recover from the light shock of rising to the arena. 

Isak looks around, tries to see as much of the arena as he can. 

Directly in front of him there’s the Cornucopia, a huge silver horn. It’s around 40 metres (circa 131 feet) away, and it’s shining in the sunlight. It’s filled with life-saving supplies, and life-taking supplies, Isak knows that. He also knows that he’s not supposed to go even near that thing, especially in the Bloodbath. Many of the tributes die trying to get supplies form there. However, it's a tempting thought. Run to the cornucopia, get a good set of knives, a backpack full of supplies and food, maybe even fresh water. But it's dangerous, because even if you do get to the Cornucopia, the career tributes will kill you before you get away. 

The Cornucopia is in a square that's surrounded with grey buildings. No, they're more like ruins than buildings. On right, there's a white building. Its ceiling has fallen off, but the sign "City Hall" is still on its place above the front doors. On the left, there's tens of meters high building, like a tower. It's missing pieces of its wall, but it's still standing there. Vines rise to the top of the tower. 

Similar ruins spread all around them. This is their arena, the place where 23 tributes will die. Isak wonders if the city was built just for them, or if it’s been here even before Panem existed. 

Isak looks at the other tributes. As expected, the career tributes look _ excited, _ especially William and Chris. They’ve been training for this for years. This is their moment. 

Isak sees Emma. She seems calm, just stares at the cornucopia. He quickly turns his gaze. 

And then Isak sees him. Even. There he is and Isak hopes that he would have not seen him. It would be easier. Because Even is his enemy now. He’s been his enemy all the time. Maybe Isak has forgotten it at some point, but now all of their moments together are meaningless. At least one of them is going to die. Isak is sure that if it comes to that, Even would have no mercy on him. The thought hurts but it’s probably true. 

Just as Isak is turning his gaze back to the cornucopia, their eyes meet. Even gives him a little encouraging _smile_ and Isak wants to scream. Why is he doing that? They’re on the arena now. Isak doesn’t smile back. He can’t afford to play Even’s little games anymore if he wants to stay alive. 

There are only few seconds until the game actually starts. Isak is now staring at the Cornucopia, but something is shining in the sunlight closer to him... Isak looks and it’s a knife. There’s a knife maybe ten metres (circa 33 feet) away. It’s not too far. If Isak is fast, he could get it. 

There’s not much time to think anymore. Two seconds left. Isak’s heart is beating fast. One second left. 

The 66th Hunger Games begins. 

And Isak runs. He runs as fast as he can. He needs the knife, it could save his life. And he really does it, he gets to the knife before anyone else. He takes it, holds it tight. It’s a bit bigger than the knifes Isak is used to throwing, but it’s everything he has for now. 

Somebody shouts “Isak!” from his left. He turns and sees Jonas and Eva next to the tower. It's twenty metres (circa 66 feet) away. And Isak runs again. He runs like his life depends on it, and it does. The careers are at the Cornucopia in any second now, and it’s when the actual Bloodbath starts. They get their weapons, and the poor tributes that thought they’d had a chance in the Cornucopia will be dead. 

Isak reaches Jonas and Eva. He glances back to the Cornucopia and for a moment everything feels like a dream, a fever dream. There are already three bodies lying on the ground, lifelessly. Isak sees how Chris from district 2 throws a spear and it pierces a girl’s body. William next to him _ cheers _. 

Isak sees two girls fighting. The other one screams and Isak wishes he wouldn’t have heard it. People are running away from the Cornucopia, some of them are already disappeared to the ruin city. He doesn’t see Even anywhere. Is he one of the bodies? Emma is also nowhere to be seen, and Isak wonders the same thing about her. 

“Isak, we need to go”, Jonas says. He has a black backpack.

“Yeah.” Isak nods. Isak has seen the Bloodbath many times before from television, but seeing it happen live... in front of him? It feels surreal. It feels disgusting. This can’t actually be happening. 

The three of them, Isak, Jonas and Eva, start running away from the Cornucopia. They have no idea where they are headed or how far the ruin city goes. Now they just have to get away. 

After a twenty-minute-run they stop for moment. All of them are panting. 

“I... I wish... we were in a forest instead of a ruin city”, Isak says. He tries to catch his breath. His mouth feels dry already, and the terrible feeling in his stomach is back. 

“Yeah... Here I feel vulnerable”, Jonas says. Isak wonders if he has that same feeling in his stomach too. “You can accidentally run into a dead alley.” 

“We need to decide where do we want go. I just mean... Do we want to stay closer to the centre of the city? Or do we want to see how far the city goes?” Eva says. 

“That’s a good point - ” 

They all freeze. There’s talking coming from a close alley. Before they have time to react, the siblings from district 9 appear behind a ruin. They freeze too. 

For a moment they all just stare at each other. Isak is the first one to move. He turns around and starts running. He doesn’t want to fight, not when it’s not necessary. He hears Jonas and Eva’s steps behind him. 

“Elias! Stop! There’s three of them. Let’s go!” Sana says somewhere behind them. 

After Sana and Elias are no longer to be seen, they slow down their pace and continue by walking. The sun is shining bright, it’s now directly above them. It’s getting hot in the jacket, and surely it doesn’t help the dryness in Isak’s mouth. 

Isak tries hard to think something to talk about with Jonas and Eva, but he comes up with nothing. He can’t ask them about district 10 or their relationship, that would just remind them of the awful situation they’re in. 

Isak’s not sure if he has even now realized that he’s actually in the game. He’s actually one of the tributes in the 66th Hunger Games. There are people right now watching them as they walk. Betting, who’s going to break the alliance first. 

The more they walk, the further they get away from the Cornucopia, the more ruined the city becomes. There’s beginning to be more and more nature, but no animals are to be seen. Soon there’s more trees and plants than ruins and Isak starts to get excited. Is there a forest in the arena after all? 

They keep walking and slowly the ruin city turns into a forest. There are pines and spruces and birches and for a moment Isak feels like he’s at home. It smells almost the same than back at district 7. If Isak is ought to die, he wants to die here.

“You got your forest, Isak”, Jonas says and gives a little laugh. 

“Now we just have to wait they they’ve gotten for you.” 

“Cows, please?” They all laugh. “I’m getting hungry.” 

“What’s in the backpack?” Eva asks. 

They agree to sit down and have a break. There’s not much in the backpack, but it’s no wonder since it was so far away from the Cornucopia. There’s one pack of dried fruit, one pack of dried meat and one pack of crackers. 

“It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing”, Jonas says encouraging. “And it’s good, that you got a knife, Isak. You’re pretty good with them, aren’t you? That’s why they gave you an eight.” 

“Yeah. What did you do to get your eight?” Isak asks. 

“I’m not even sure, really. I did a bunch of things.” 

So, Jonas is still being careful with Isak, he doesn’t want to reveal too much. 

“I know that you want your forest Isak, and that’s fine by me, but I don’t think we should go too far from the city. Then we can easily switch the surroundings if we need to.” 

Isak nods. “Yeah. Okay. But now, we need water.” 

They spend few hours trying to look for water, but they find nothing. They walk back, closer to the city and decide to settle next to a huge pine. They all eat a few dried fruits and share a piece of dried meat. 

“We need to try again tomorrow. We won’t survive long without”, Isak says. 

It’s getting darker and colder. Jonas and Eva are cuddling, trying to warm each other up. 

“You can join us too, if you want”, Jonas teases. 

“No thanks, I'm fine”, Isak laughs. It feels a bit wrong, to be laughing in the arena, but Isak tries to let that feeling go. 

Suddenly, the national anthem of Panem starts playing. The symbol of Panem is projected to the dark sky. They’re about to show the fallen tributes from today. Isak starts to feel uneasy. What if he sees Even face on the sky? 

The first fallen is the girl from district 1. Isak can’t remember her name. The next ones are the girl and boy from district 5. Isak feels relieved. Even is still alive. He knows that Even is his enemy, but he can’t help the feeling. 

The districts 6 and 11 lost both of their tributes too. The music stops and the night is quiet again. 

There were seven deaths today. Seven kills. All of them during the Bloodbath, because there was no cannon during the day. When a tribute dies, they fire a cannon to mark that. 

“I think”, Jonas breaks the silence. “that we should go to sleep. We don’t know when the sun rises again, so we should take the advantage of the dark hours. I can take the first watch.” 

Isak feels a little uncomfortable. He’s still not entirely sure, if he can trust Jonas and Eva. Sure, they shared their food with Isak and they haven’t killed him yet, but still. 

Jonas seems to notice that. “Isak. We don’t want to kill you. I know you’re wondering if you can trust us, but if we wanted you dead, we wouldn’t have taken you as an ally at all. We’re not here to kill, we’re here to survive. Just like you are.” 

Jonas has a point, sure, but Isak still doesn’t sleep well. The ground is quite uncomfortable to sleep, and he keeps waking up to even the smallest noises. And when he finally falls to deeper sleep, he dreams about the Bloodbath. He watches as the blood drains to the ground, the bodies on the ground on unnatural positions. Even getting pierced with a spear by Emma. 

He wakes up after that dream. It’s still dark, and even though it’s cold he still has sweat on his forehead. He also has a terrible headache, probably caused by dehydration.

Eva is keeping the watch now. She’s leaning on the pine and watching the sky. The sky is very beautiful. There are no clouds, and you can see the stars and the moon clearly.

Isak gets up and sits next to Eva. “Do you think they are real? The stars. Or are they another thing Capitol made just for this arena.” 

Eva glances at him. “I don’t know, could be. But they are very beautiful.” 

“They are.” 

Isak tries to find constellations he's familiar with, but finds none.

“Why aren’t you with the girl from your district?” Eva asks. 

“What?” Isak looks at her. She looks vulnerable in the dark. “I don’t, I don’t know. We just...” 

“Don’t get along?” 

“You could tell that?” 

“Very easily.” 

“Well, yeah. That’s true.” 

“I bet it’s easier to be here when you don’t get along with the other tribute from your district. When you don’t love them. Because you know that the both of you can’t survive. It hurts even though the other one is still alive.” 

Isak doesn’t know what to say. He feels bad for Eva and Jonas. “I bet that’s really hard. For both of you.” 

“Of course, this is really hard for you too, for all of us, but it’s... different. When the person you love most is here with you. You’re just thinking which one of you is going to die first.” 

“That sucks. All of this sucks.” 

They’re quiet for few minutes. “You should go to sleep. I’ll keep the watch.” 

Eva hesitates for a second, maybe thinks if she can trust Isak, but then lays next to Jonas. 

Isak doesn’t know how long he’s awake, but finally the sun starts to rise. He wakes Eva and Jonas and they all eat a cracker for breakfast. Isak’s mouth feels even drier after that and his head starts to feel like it’s close to exploding. 

“We really need water”, he says. 

They start walking to another direction than yesterday. The sun gets higher and higher, and there’s still no sign of water or animals. Isak tries to enjoy the forest, but it’s hard because of his terrible headache. And maybe the fact, that he’s in the Hunger Games. 

Suddenly, there’s a cannon. Isak, Jonas, and Eva stop. Now there’s only 16 tributes left. 

“Who do you think it was?” Eva asks. 

Neither Isak nor Jonas answers. 

“Shh”, Jonas says. Isak raises his brows. Then he hears it, too. He hears several people talking, and then he sees them too. The career tributes, and girl from district 12. Was her name Noora? Why is she with the careers? Isak sees Even and his heart skips a beat. 

The careers stop for a second, and then the chase begins. Isak and his alliances make a turnabout and for this time, they actually run for their life. 

“Look, who’s here! The cute little forest fairy and the unlucky lovers!” Chris shouts. 

An unfamiliar girl’s voice says: “It would be shame if they died only on the second day of the game!” 

"Like the boy from district 12 we just got rid of!"

All of a sudden, Eva falls. She tripped to a small rock. 

“Eva!” Jonas shouts and helps her up. Just when they’re about to keep going, something flies through the air and hits Eva on the right shoulder. Isak looks back, and sees Sonja standing a bit further away with a bow. Even is standing at a distance behind her, just starring at them with no emotions. He has a golden trident on his right hand. Why isn’t he doing anything? 

The other careers are getting closer, and Isak feels paralyzed. Panic starts to take control and he can’t make himself to move. This is his end. This is where he’ll die, by the hands of the careers. At least he’ll die in a forest, that’s what he hoped for, right? 

_ The flame, _ _ Isak__. _

There’s a sudden wave of anger that goes through him, a sudden adrenaline. Maybe it’s the flame Eskild talked about. Isak has to survive. He’ll fight if he needs to. He’ll run till he reaches the hell if he needs to. But he can’t die, here, not like this. He won't let the pets of the Capitol kill him like this.

They won’t get far, if there’s somebody who can just butcher them with a bow. He takes his knife with a still hand, and with all of his anger he throws it. He doesn’t stay to look, but he’s sure it’ll be a bull’s eye. He just turns and starts running. Running for his life. He feels his heart beating, feels like he could almost hear it. 

Jonas has picked Eva up to his shoulders. They’re already a bit further away, but Isak reaches them quite easily, since Jonas is now a slower runner with Eva. 

They keep running, and at some point Isak feels like he’s dying. He’s not at a terrible fit, but he’s not used to running like this either. But his legs just keep going, taking another step after another. 

Jonas must be dying, too, he’s carrying Eva at least. Finally, they slower pace when there’s not a sight of the career tributes anymore. 

Isak collapses to the ground and all the adrenaline is gone. He closes his eyes, and he sees his knife flying towards Sonja. 

A cannon shot overthrows every other sound for a second. That was probably for Sonja. Eva is still alive, according to the painful moaning next to him. 

Isak pukes. He pukes all the little food he has had in the arena. He gags trying to puke even more, tears fill his eyes as his body tries to get rid of something that’s not there. 

There are other tears with them too. Isak had tried to imagine what it would feel like to kill somebody, but this feels million times worse. His stomach has a terrible feeling; if Isak would eat anything, it’d come up at the same second. Isak have had food poisonings and bacterias before, he’s been puking all night for many times, but this feels nothing like those times. 

There’s a heavy feeling in his chest, a pressure. An actual pain, like he had thrown the knife into his own chest instead of Sonja’s. 

He stays there, on the ground for who knows how long. He stares the ground, watches as a very tiny spider walks around. It climbs into a cone and disappears inside. He listens as Jonas tries to calm Eva down, how he tries to treat her wound. Isak doesn’t know how lethal the wound is, but Eva won’t survive long. They have no supplies to save her. Jonas probably knows that. They both probably do. 

“We need to go. We can’t stay here.” 

At first, Isak doesn’t realise that Jonas is talking to _him_. 

“Isak.” 

Isak doesn’t answer. He tries to, but words don’t come out of his mouth. 

His mouth. It’s is so dry. Even a drop of water would help. They’ve been without water one day and a half, and if they don’t find water soon, they’ll slowly die from dehydration. 

“Isak. Get up. Get up.” Jonas grabs his arm and tries to get him up. “Get up. We need to keep going. We’ll find a building that’s safe. It’ll probably we warmer there. We’ll find water. We’ll have a cracker with dried meat. Get up.” 

Isak gets up. He almost falls back to the ground.

“You saved us, Isak. We would all be as dead as that rock over there, if you wouldn’t have done what you did.” Jonas gets closer and whispers: “You didn’t do it because you wanted to. You did it, because you needed to. Because Capitol made you to need to throw that knife.” 

Jonas has a point. Jonas has a point on everything he says. He’s smart, he’s strong, maybe he should be the winner. 

Isak is not a winner. He’s weak. If he had any sponsors at all, he just lost them all. Nobody wants to sponsor a guy who pukes after he kills somebody. That’s what the game is about, killing. You won’t survive otherwise. Isak tries hard to tell himself that, but it doesn’t ease the pressure on his chest. 

“Jonas”, Eva says quietly. Isak looks at her for the first time since they stopped. She’s laying on the ground, looking pale. Jonas ripped the right sleeve from her shirt and tried to make a tourniquet. Her jacket is on blood, and so is the ground under her right arm. 

“We’ll move soon. You’ll be fine. I promise.” Jonas’ voice is steady. 

“I’m so sorry”, Isak says, but neither of them hears. 

Isak helps Jonas pick Eva up, and they start walking. They walk for half an hour, take a little break, and they walk more. Isak’s legs are hurting. It takes at least another half an hour before there are starting to be ruins again. 

It’s getting dark, and when they see the first building that hasn’t fully collapsed, they decide to spend the night there. Isak goes in first, checks if there’s anybody, but the building is empty. Jonas and Eva follow him inside, and Jonas lays Eva down to the floor. She looks even paler now than before. 

The house is small. It has two floors, but the upper floor’s ceiling has fallen off. 

Downstairs there’s a room that probably used to be a living room. It has no furniture, but the curtains are still there and Isak pulls them over the windows. It gets really dark, but Isak’s eyes get used to it quickly. 

There’s also a kitchen, but Isak finds no food. He opens a tap, expecting it to be broken as well, but he hears a water drop hit the bottom of the sink. Another drop. Another. 

“Jonas!” Isak shouts exited. His voice is raspy. 

“What is it?” Jonas asks from the living room. 

“Water! I found water.” 

Jonas sprints to the kitchen. “Really?” 

“Yeah. The tap.” Isak gets a plastic mug he found from a cupboard and places it underneath the tap. “We might have to wait for some time, but it’s water.” 

“That’s amazing.” 

The Capitol’s anthem starts playing, and Jonas runs upstairs to see. Isak stays in the kitchen. He watches the waterdrops slowly filling the mug. The pressure on his chest gets worse. 

The anthem ends, and Jonas returns to the kitchen. 

“I’ll prepare us some food. Can you bring the water to the living room when the mug is filled?” 

“Yeah.” Isak is not sure if he can eat anything yet, but he knows he should try. 

Isak finds another mug and when the first one is filled, he put the empty one there. 

Jonas is sitting next to Eva on the floor. He’s helping her eat, and even though Isak is terribly thirsty, he gives the cup of water to them first. 

“Thank you, Isak”, Eva says. She sounds small and weak. 

Isak sits next to them. Jonas hands him a cracker with a piece of dried meat and two dried fruits. His stomach growls even though there’s still odious feeling there. 

Jonas helps Eva drink a sip of water and offers then the mug to Isak. Isak takes it and takes a sip. He tries hard not to drink all the water at once, he has to leave Jonas some too. 

The water tastes metallic, but right now it doesn’t matter. It goes down his throat, and nothing has ever felt better. He’s had the terrible headache all day, and Isak is sure that it’d go away if he could drink the whole cup of water. 

But he doesn’t. He gives the mug back to Jonas. 

“Was she there?” Isak asks after they’ve been quiet for a moment. Eva has fallen asleep. 

“Yeah”, Jonas answers. He looks Isak into the eyes. “You’re not a bad person because of that, Isak. Remember what I said.” 

Isak tries to think about that, when he goes to sleep. And he does fall asleep, finally, but all he dreams of is Sonja falling to the ground with a knife on her chest. Blood draining to the ground. Even standing behind her. 

“Why did you do that, Isak?” Even asks with no emotion. “Why? Why? You’re an animal, just like the rest of us.” He throws his trident at Isak and Isak wakes up. He falls asleep again and dreams the same dream. Again, and again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES  
15 tributes left
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad  
Iben Sandberg
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim  
Sonja FALLEN day 2
> 
> District 5: power  
Adam Malik FALLEN day 1  
Sara Nørrstelien FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 6: transportation  
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal FALLEN day 1  
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 7: lumber  
Isak Valtersen  
Emma W. Larzen
> 
> District 8: textiles  
Magnus Fossbakken  
Vilde Lien Hellerud
> 
> District 9: grain  
Elias Bakkoush  
Sana Bakkoush
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez  
Eva Kviig Mohn
> 
> District 11: agriculture  
Mutasim Tatouti FALLEN day 1  
Jamilla Bikarim FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 12: mining  
Yousef Acar FALLEN day 2  
Noora Amalie Sætre


	7. the ocean and the river

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again <3 happy easter!
> 
> here's the new chapter!  
at first i thought i'd save if for later but whatever, you deserve it!  
i hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please leave a comment! they're the biggest inspiration to me <3

Isak wakes up, because there’s a bright light shining at his face. He opens his eyes, and the bright light is sun, shining to the living room between the curtains. He gets up to sit. His headache is still there, and so is the pressure in his chest. 

Jonas is sitting next to sleeping Eva, stroking her hair. Eva looks pale, and Isak is sure she won’t last for long anymore. 

“Is it morning already?” Isak asks. His mouth is so dry. Jonas nods. “Why did you let me sleep through the whole night?” 

“I don’t know. I wanted to thank you, you know, for saving my life.” 

Isak is quiet for a moment. “Okay. Thank you. How’s Eva doing?” 

Jonas looks at Eva with a sad gaze. “Not well. I just wish that I could do more, than just try to calm her down. I searched the whole house during night, but there was nothing useful.” 

“I’m so sorry.” 

Jonas doesn’t answer. He hands Isak a cup, it’s half full of water. “That’s the water we have left. The tap stopped working, it only half filled the second cup. You can have some.” 

Isak takes a sip, and it feels great but it’s not enough. He needs more. He gets up. “I’m going to search for more water. There are dozens of houses like this, some of them must have water.” 

Isak tries to find a bottle, or any other dish that would make carrying the water easier, but the two plastic mugs are everything there is. 

“Stay safe”, Jonas says before Isak is leaving, and he sounds actually sincere. 

“You too”, Isak says. He looks at Eva, who’s still sleeping, and wonders whether she’ll be dead, when he comes back. 

Isak leaves the house. Walking in the alleys, he feels very vulnerable, especially now when he doesn’t have his knife anymore. He gets shivers, when he thinks about the knife. 

He goes from house to house, from ruin to ruin, trying to find water. It takes two hours before he finds the first working tap. It only fills the first cup half full, and Isak decides just to drink it. And it tastes great, boosts him to try to find more water. 

Isak searches for another two hours and luckily finds a small empty water bottle that he can fit his jackets’ pocket. And finally, after hours, he finds another working tap. He waits till the first cup fills, pours it into the bottle and waits it to fill again. 

After an hour, he has filled his bottle, drank a cup of water, and filled both of the cups. He feels energetic, now that he’s had water to drink. His stomach growls because of hunger, but maybe Jonas will give him a piece of dried meat when he gets back. 

Isak has difficulties to find back, but finally he gets back to the right house. 

The house is empty. Isak puts down the mugs, searches the house but there’s nobody there. 

Jonas and Eva have left. Isak sits down to the floor in the living room. He’s all alone. His alliances have left him. 

They probably wanted to spend their last moments together alone, and in a way he understands that. Isak knows, that he couldn’t have kept Jonas as his ally forever. At one point, this would have happened anyways, or in the worst case, one of them would have ended up killing the other. But he felt so much safer, when he had Jonas and Eva with him, and now he just feels empty. If they weren’t at Hunger Games, they could’ve become friends. 

On the floor, there’s two crackers, few dried fruits and two pieces of dried meat. They left Isak food even though they abandoned him? They’re too good for this game, he thinks. 

He eats a cracker and puts the rest of the food to his pocket. He drinks the water from the cups; there’s no use to take them with him. 

He leaves the house and starts heading back to the forest. He’ll feel safer in there. When he finally gets to the forest it’s starting to get dark. He finds a big pine and climbs up. That’s another thing Isak is good with; climbing to trees. He settles down to a big branch, eats the dried fruits and drinks a bit of water. 

He has to find more food soon. He won’t survive long with what he has, his stomach has an empty feeling all the time. 

There’s a cannon shot and Isak’s heart skips a beat. Was that for Eva? Or maybe for Even? He tries hard not to think about Sonja. The weight of her is still there, the pressure on his chest. It will probably be there for as long as Isak lives. 

Isak doesn’t have to wait the answer for long. The national anthem starts playing, and Eva’s face is projected to the sky. Isak feels empty and lonely, but he thinks how empty and lonely Jonas must feel. He just lost his girlfriend, the love of his life. 

There are no other fallen tributes today. 

In the forest, it’s much colder than in the ruin. It wasn’t warm there either, though. Isak hopes he could make a fire, use his skills, but it would be too dangerous. Somebody could see it. 

At first, Isak thinks about staying up all night, because there’s no one to guard now that he’s alone, but he falls asleep anyways. It’s unlikely that somebody would spot him in the tree when it’s dark. 

Tonight, he doesn’t dream at all. 

“Good morning!” 

Isak wakes up. The first thought is that Eskild has again stormed into his room with a cup of coffee. He almost falls from the three and remembers where he actually is. It’s already morning, the sun is rising and paints the sky pink and orange. 

“Did you sleep well? That looks quite uncomfortable, how come you didn’t fall? You could have broken your neck.” 

Isak is confused at first. He looks down to see the person talking. He almost falls from the tree again. 

“Isn’t it a bit risky to sleep alone?” 

Isak climbs higher in the tree. He feels uneasy, how could he be so careless? He could be dead by now. “What do you want?” he asks sharply. 

Even is standing at the foot of the tree. He has a grey backpack and his golden trident. He’s looking up at Isak. 

“What do I want? An alliance.” 

“What?” Isak asks. Is Even really down there or is he dreaming? 

“You heard me.” Even leans on his trident. It’s hard to focus when he has a charming smile on his face. And his hair, it looks great. How does it look great after three days in the arena? Isak pushes those thoughts away, Even is his enemy. He’s not supposed to feel like that about him. 

“No way you want me as your alliance. I killed Sonja.” It’s the first time Isak says that out loud. He gets odious shivers. 

“Maybe that’s why I want you to be my alliance.” 

“She was from your district. There’s no way you’d think that.” 

“You did what you had to, to survive. I respect that boldness.” 

Isak doesn’t answer. He tries to figure out if this really is not a dream. _ Even _ telling him that it was _ brave _ to kill the girl from his district? 

“How can you take her death so lightly?” 

“I’m not, I'm just thinking about the facts. She would have killed you without hesitation, Isak. And if you didn’t kill her, William probably would have stabbed her to death at some point.” 

“Yeah, okay, but how can I trust you? Why aren’t you with your _ friends _?” That comes out more sharply than Isak intended to. 

“I’ve said it before, they’re not my friends. I left them after Sonja died. I couldn’t handle their stupidity.” 

Isak tries hard not to give laugh. “How do I know that this isn’t just a plot to get me down from the tree and then they’ll come and kill me?” 

“Isak, stop that. They would have already shot you with a bow. Here, look.” Even places his trident on the ground. He takes off his backpack, takes something out of it and places it next to the trident. A knife. He takes another one out and few more. In total, there’s five of them. Then he takes few steps further. 

“Look. I can give you knives. Actual throwing knives. I stole them from William before I left. Because I knew you could use them.” He looks frustrated, the smile is now gone. “You know why I want you as my ally.” 

What is Even talking about? He took the knives just because of Isak, hoping to find him? Isak blushes, and he hates it. But Even sounds sincere, and he would make an amazing alliance. It’s rare to see a career tribute out of the career pack, but Even has never been the typical career tribute. 

Isak thinks. He’s been worrying about Even all the time, and now that he’s actually here, would he say no to his offer? 

“So are you coming down?” 

Isak climbs down from the three. He takes the knives from the ground. They fit almost perfectly to his hand. He picks one and throws it to a three nearby. Perfect. He goes and collects the knife back. 

Even picks his trident up. “Where are your friends, by the way? The couple.” 

“They left. And Eva’s dead.” 

“I’m sorry”, Even says. They’re quiet for a moment. “Do we have a deal then?” 

Their eyes meet. 

They could kill each other there and then, and they both know it. Isak could throw his knife, watch as another body collapses to the ground because of him. Even could throw his trident, pierce Isak’s body with it. But they don’t because there’s something unexplainable between them. 

Even’s gaze is almost begging. 

Isak knows Even’s eyes are blue. Light blue, like the ocean just before it meets the beach. Isak has never seen ocean but he’s seen pictures. He’s seen Even’s eyes. 

“Yeah”, he says but the word gets stuck to his throat. “Yeah. Okay.”, he says again. 

A wide smile spreads to Even’s face. “Really? I was a bit afraid that I'll get a knife to my chest”, he says but sounds teasing. 

Isak smiles now too. “Would you want one, then? You can pick your favourite one.” 

Even laughs. Isak had forgotten how nice his laugh sounds. He hates that he’s thinking about it. 

In a way, it was easier to see Even as his enemy, because now there’s butterflies in his stomach, again. And that’s distraction, it could cost him his victory. But for now, he just ignores that fact and enjoys Even’s smile and eyes and voice. 

“Oh”, Even says and digs his backpack again. “The knives came with this, but I thought it would be more dramatic to show them without it.” 

Even hands him a black belt. Isak takes a closer look and realizes that it’s a belt for the knives. It has five cases, one for each knife. Isak places the knives to the belt and puts the belt on. The knives are on his right side, so he can easily reach them. The belt feels a bit uncomfortable, but it’s much more convenient than to carry five knives on hand. 

“Thank you, Even”, Isak says. He feels safer again, but Sonja keeps coming back to his mind. “Is this how it feels to be a career tribute? To be William?” 

“Probably. All you’re missing is the hair and his little pet. And the arrogance.” 

They laugh, but then Isak asks: “Pet?” 

“Yeah. The girl from district 12, Noora. We almost killed them - ” Even seems to notice that Isak gets little uncomfortable and corrects himself, “they almost killed them, the tributes from district 12, but William wanted to keep the girl. Noora agreed to join us – them - only, if the boy could too. And he was part of the career pack for a while, but as you know, he’s dead now. Chris killed him after he thought that the boy was going to attack. But he was just bored, there’s no way the boy was going to attack, he had no weapon.” 

“Wow.” Do the careers not have the sick feeling that comes from killing somebody? Isak doesn’t know how to call the feeling. It’s not remorse, because he is thankful that he’s still alive. There’s just the weight, the price of his actions that he has to carry and when he thinks about it too much, it makes him feel sick. 

“Yeah. It’s wonder that Noora is still alive but who knows what goes on inside William’s head.” 

“Nothing?” Isak suggests, trying to lighten the conversation. He really doesn’t feel like talking about the careers and killing right now. 

Even smiles. He puts his backpack on. “Are you ready? We won’t stay here.” 

“Where are we going then?” 

“Just follow me.” Even starts walking, and Isak follows him. They’re not walking back to the city but neither further from it. They’re probably going around it. 

“Why should I trust that you know where you’re going? I’m the master of the woods, not you”, Isak teases. 

“Trust me, I know where I'm going.” 

They walk, and Isak feels safe. Even and the forest feels safe. In the back of his mind, he knows that both of them are hoaxes in the end. Even might be his ally now, but in few days, he could be Isak’s most dangerous enemy. And the forest – it feels safe, because it feels familiar. But it could be hiding anything, the careers, or even mutants. 

Even and the forest are both perishable. 

“How did you find me?” Isak asks. Even glances him. 

“I assumed that you would be in the forest. It’s a big forest, but I had no choice, so I just wondered around. And there you were, a sleeping beauty in a tree.” 

“So you wanted to find me?” The feeling of the butterflies gets stronger. In a way, the feeling bothers him, but on the other hand it covers the sick feeling in his stomach that the thought of Sonja makes him feel. 

Even smiles. “I mean, yeah. I wanted to be your alliance even before the arena, but my mentor didn’t let me.” 

Isak gives a little laugh, tries to hide the fact that he’s blushing, again. “What? Really?” 

“Yeah. I knew you we’re not just some stupid pretty tree boy. And you proved that when you got the score eight. But my mentor still didn’t let me. He insisted that I'd be with the other careers. He thought that you’d get arrogant, try to get supplies from the Cornucopia and die in the Bloodbath or something like that.” 

“That’s kinda rude of him”, Isak says. “I thought that you we’re just another stupid and arrogant career tribute. And I was right.” 

Even laughs. 

“No, I knew you we’re different. When you showed me that...” Isak quiets down. 

He remembers that they’re being filmed all the time and doesn’t want to mention the rooftop. He sometimes tends to forget that, because there are no cameras to be seen anywhere, but they’re probably being live on the televisions of the whole Panem right now. Or maybe not _ right now _but they’ll show to the audience that Isak and Even got together. 

He thinks what else they’ve probably been showing. Isak teaming up with Jonas and Eva, Isak killing Sonja, Jonas and Eva leaving him and Isak finding that out, Eva dying. To Capitol, they’re just a piece of meat, an entertainment. And to the districts... Isak doesn’t want to think how district 7 sees him. 

Even seems to realize what Isak was meaning to say. He nods. “Yeah.” 

They walk for few hours. Isak wants to ask Even why he volunteered as a tribute but he doesn’t. 

Isak stops when he hears something. It sounds like running water. “Is that water?” 

They walk a bit forward, and then there’s a river. A wave of relief goes through Isak. His mouth is dry again. He still has his water bottle, but he’s tried being sparing with the water. 

Even smiles widely. “Welcome to the river.” 

Isak almost runs to the river. He gets his water bottle and fills it up. The water tastes so much better than what it did in the city, it doesn't have the metallic taste. 

Even drinks water too, and then sits to a rock next to the river. 

Isak washes his face with the cool water. It feels so good. 

“You can have a wash up in the river if you want. I can keep watch”, Even says. 

“Is that why your hair looks so perfect? Because you come here to bath?” Isak teases.

“Did you just say that my hair is perfect?” Even raises his eyebrows and smiles widely. 

Isak rolls his eyes and blushes. “No, didn’t. Your ears are broken.” 

“No, I think my ears are working just fine. But yeah, that’s the secret to my_ beautiful _hair. I was here yesterday.” 

Isak thinks about the suggestion and it does sounds tempting, but he would be very vulnerable in the water. 

Even seems to notice his hesitation. “Don’t worry. I'll slaughter anyone that tries to come close with my trident.” 

The forest around them is dense, and it’s unlikely anyone would come close if they would hear talking. Except for the career pack, of course. But Isak gives in and takes his jacket off. He hesitates for a moment before taking the shirt off. He drops it to the ground next to the jacket. 

He feels Even’s gaze and turns to see him. Even just smiles at him and turns his gaze away. Isak can’t help but blush. 

He takes off the knife belt, boots and pants. There’s a moment of hesitation again before he takes off his boxers. He thinks about the cameras all around them. 

Even is making him nervous, too. In a way it’s turning Isak on, to undress himself in front of Even. He tries to push that thought away, because after all, they are still in the Hunger Games. But Even is distracting, there’s nothing Isak could do about it. 

The water is cold, Isak flinches when he steps into the water. 

“Don’t be a chicken, just get in there”, Even says. Isak turns his head to see him. There’s teasing look in Even’s face. “It’s not even that cold.” 

Isak raises his eyebrows and rolls his eyes. He gets fully in and it feels like millions of small knives are stabbing him all around. He takes water to his hands and throws it at Even. 

Even gets quickly up and backs up a bit. “Hey!” he says but laughs. 

“I thought you said it isn’t even that cold”, Isak says teasingly. 

“It isn’t”, Even answers, “I just don’t want my clothes to get wet.” 

“Sure”, Isak says and throws bit more water at Even, but he’s too far away. 

Isak quickly washes off the sweat and dirt he has on his body and rinses his hair too. He then gets up from the water, takes his clothes and knives and finds a sunny spot to dry himself. He feels frozen to the bones, but it was worth it. He feels refreshed. 

Once he’s dry and dressed up, he joins Even again. 

“I was afraid that you ran off”, Even says, but doesn’t sound serious. “I prepared us some food.” 

“Really?” Isak sits to the ground across Even. In front of him there’s an apple, few pieces of cooked meat, a fried potato and a piece of _ chocolate? _Even has the same serving in front of him. 

Isak’s so used to being hungry, that sometimes he forgets how hungry he actually is. Now he feels how empty his stomach is again. 

“Wow. Thank you.”, he says thankfully. “Where did you get this?” 

“We got it from the Cornucopia. I took food with me before I left, but it’ll run out soon. I couldn’t fit that much to my backpack.” 

Isak takes a bite of the potato. It’s cold but it tastes so good. So does the meat, and the apple and the chocolate. It reminds him of the meals he had in Capitol. Of course, it’s not the same, but he’s been so hungry that everything tastes heavenly. 

“Seriously. Thank you”, Isak says again when he’s finished. 

Even smiles. Isak looks at his eyes again and sees the ocean there. He hears the river next to them, smells the forest. He feels peaceful, and he tries to hold on to that feeling. 

Him or Even could be dead in few days. In few hours. In few minutes. They both could be dead in few seconds. 

Isak tries not to think about that. 

He wants to stay in this moment for as long as he can. He’d stay forever, if that was an option. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES  
14 tributes left
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad  
Iben Sandberg
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim  
Sonja FALLEN day 2
> 
> District 5: power  
Adam Malik FALLEN day 1  
Sara Nørrstelien FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 6: transportation  
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal FALLEN day 1  
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 7: lumber  
Isak Valtersen  
Emma W. Larzen
> 
> District 8: textiles  
Magnus Fossbakken  
Vilde Lien Hellerud
> 
> District 9: grain  
Elias Bakkoush  
Sana Bakkoush
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez  
Eva Kviig Mohn FALLEN day 3
> 
> District 11: agriculture  
Mutasim Tatouti FALLEN day 1  
Jamilla Bikarim FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 12: mining  
Yousef Acar FALLEN day 2  
Noora Amalie Sætre


	8. the birds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again!! <3  
i'm so sorry it took me forever to update :( i've been quite busy again :/
> 
> but i hope you enjoy this one, and if you do (or if you don't), please leave a comment <3  
i love them and they push me forward with this story!
> 
> and shoutout to my beta [maleclipse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maleclipse/pseuds/maleclipse), please go check her out!  


Isak watches Even as he sleeps. 

Even looks peaceful. He’s breathing calmly, and all the stress and worry and weight of the Game is gone. Isak brushes a hair stripe away from Even’s face gently. He looks beautiful, too. 

They’re still at the river, it’s their second night there. Nothing special really happened yesterday, if you don’t count the fact that the girl from district 2 is now dead, which Isak does count as a special event. They just hydrated their bodies and tried to look for food close by. There was not a sight of animals or fish, but they did find some berries. Neither of them recognised them, though, so they just left them be. 

Isak doesn’t feel the hunger anymore. He knows he’s hungry, he knows he should eat but he doesn’t feel it. There’s just this weird tightening feeling in his stomach. 

The sky is still dark, and Isak can’t stop staring and admiring it. The stars spread all above him and at the same time Isak feels like he’s all alone in the whole universe because the sky is infinite but then... Who knows what’s out there? And Even - 

“What are you thinking about?” Even’s voice is quiet. Isak turns his head to see him. Even is still laying on the ground. He’s smiling but looks tired. The peace he had when he was sleeping is now gone. 

“Infinity”, Isak answers. He looks back to the sky. “Look at the sky. And the stars. They’re infinite. The universe is so tremendous that we can’t even comprise that.” 

Even sits up next to Isak and looks at the sky. “What?” 

“We’re so small and yet everything feels so big to us. Like how cold it is now. Or how we haven’t eaten properly in days. Or our favourite book or, or favourite flower or... When you think about the universe it’s all so small. We’re so small.” 

Even raises his brows, but he lets Isak talk. 

“And I’ve been thinking about parallel universes too. It helps, when you’re in a situation like this. When your life... I mean, everything that can happen, happens. _ Everything. _There are millions of universes. Every choice you have ever done, in some other universe you made another one.” 

Isak is quiet for a moment. “Somewhere there’s universe where you chose not to volunteer. Where my name didn’t get picked. And... then there’s universe where instead of the Hunger Games we’re sitting at a park.” 

Even doesn’t say anything. He’s still looking up to the sky. 

“It helps. To think like that. That somewhere there’s an Isak that isn’t in the Hunger Games. And Even.” 

Even looks at Isak. He’s smiling slightly. “So, a park?” 

Isak blushes a little. “Yeah, I mean, that was just an example.” 

“But you think we’re meant to meet? In every universe?” 

Isak turns his head so their eyes don’t meet. “I don’t know”, he says quietly. “I hope that there’s universe where we aren’t enemies.” 

Even puts his hand on Isak’s shoulder. The butterflies in Isak’s stomach come alive again. 

“But we aren’t enemies.” 

“I know. For now. But we are meant to be. In this universe.” 

“Fuck that.” 

Isak looks back at Even. “What?” 

“Fuck that!” There’s a sudden fury in his blue eyes. “I won’t settle for that. We could be anything. If they - “ He quiets down, probably doesn’t want to talk too much. Capitol is after all still watching them. Even lays down and looks at the stars. “I want to control my own life. To be the director of it. Sometimes I do things just to feel that I'm in control.” 

"Is that why you volunteered?” Isak asks carefully. He’s been thinking about it quite a lot. Why did Even volunteer? He’s not the typical career tribute; he’s not a dickhead, he doesn’t talk about the game and victory like it would be the best thing ever to happen to him. 

Even is quiet for a moment, he thinks. Isak looks at him. His full lips. Even looks at him, their eyes meet. His blue eyes look now darker than during the day. Even smiles and Isak turns his look away. The feeling in his stomach gets stronger. Isak wishes they were in that park. 

Even doesn’t answer Isak’s question. He gets up, picks his trident from the ground next to him. “Your turn to sleep.” 

Isak doesn’t argue. Even walks to the river, and Isak lays down. He watches the stars again, and quickly falls asleep. 

The sky is cloudless. The pond in front of Isak reflects the blue sky. He’s leaning on a huge oak. Even is lying next to him on the green grass. Somewhere above them a bird is singing. 

Isak and Even’s eyes meet. Isak smiles and leans towards Even. Even puts his left hand behind Isak’s neck and smiles back. 

“Isak.” 

Isak opens his eyes. It’s early morning, and still quite cold. The sky is pink and orange again. Even’s face is a few centimetres away from his. 

“Isak. Wake up. Do you hear that?” 

He remembers his dream and blushes. But at the same time, he feels disappointed that it was just a dream. He listens, but doesn’t hear anything. 

“No”, he says and sits up. He probably didn’t sleep longer than a few hours, but it’s still better than nothing. 

Even stands up. He still has his trident on his hand. He looks around skeptically, and he looks so strong and confident and ready to fight. 

Isak then hears the noise Even is probably talking about. It sounds like leaves are rustling, maybe somebody is hiding in a thicket nearby. He quickly stands up and takes a knife to both of his hands. His heart starts beating faster. Even though nobody is yet to be seen, he tries to mentally prepare himself for a fight. 

The sound continues, and Isak realises that it doesn’t come from the thickets but from the three next to them. Did somebody climb to the three during night and has now decided to kill them? 

Isak looks at the three, and relaxes. There’s not a tribute there. It’s a bird. It’s a size of a big crow, but it isn’t crow. He hasn’t seen one before. It’s colourful; its long and sharp beak is blue, it has pink plumes on top of its head and the feathers on its body are yellow and green and blue and pink and orange. 

Even has lowered his trident. He puckers his eyebrows and doesn’t seem to recognise the bird either. “Isak”, he says. ”Do you think you could hit that bird with your knife?” 

Isak realises what Even means. Food. “Yeah, if it doesn’t fly away.” 

He slowly raises his right hand and puts it over his shoulder. He tries to move slow, so the bird wouldn’t feel threatened. Isak quickly analyses the three and the branches around the bird. He doesn’t aim straight to the bird, it will probably fly away once it realises that something is coming towards it, but a bit to left because that’s where Isak thinks the bird will try to fly. 

The bird stares Isak, or at least it feels like that. It’s so pretty, that Isak almost feels bad about his intention to kill it. Then the bird squawks and nothing about it is pretty. It sounds like a crow except one million times uglier. Isak flinches. He throws the knife, and everything goes just as he planned. The bird, still making the ugliest sound Isak has ever heard, spreads its wings but before it escapes too far, the knife hits its chest and the bird falls to the ground. 

“That was amazing!” Even says. And Isak is pretty proud of himself too, but when he walks to the bird and sees the knife on its chest, a terrible wave of guilt and self-hatred goes over him. Not because of the bird, but because once again it makes him think about Sonja. 

Isak closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. He tries to remind himself about the things Jonas said to him; that he didn’t throw the knife because he wanted to, but because Capitol made him to. Isak knows that Jonas isn’t his friend or an ally, but it has kind of become a thing. He thinks about Jonas’ words when Sonja comes to his mind, and it makes him feel a little better. 

“Are you okay?” Even asks. 

Isak doesn’t want to tell Even how much Sonja’s death haunts him. It probably haunts Even too, so it’s just better for both of them if they don’t talk about it. Sometimes, he still wonders how Even can be so kind to him. 

“Yeah”, he says and opens his eyes. He kneels next to the bird. He takes the knife out of its chest, wipes it clean to the grass and puts it back to his knife belt. 

Isak is just about to say how they’ll now have food for days, when he hears the leaves of the three rustling again. 

“Isak”, Even says slowly. He sounds a bit terrified, and Isak doesn’t know why until he looks up to the tree. The tree is full of similar birds than the one lying dead on the ground. It wouldn’t be so terrifying if the birds weren’t all starring at Isak and if there weren’t dozens of them. 

Isak stands up slowly, but it’s a mistake because all of the birds start to scream and squawk at the same time and Isak ears feel like they’re about to explode. But that’s not the worst thing. The flock of the rainbow birds spread their wings and head towards Isak. 

Isak doesn’t know what to do, so he kneels down again and tries to cover his head with his hands. Isak doesn’t see the birds, but he can _ feel _ them. They’re all around him, scratching him with their feet and nails, stabbing with their long and sharp beaks. Isak has never felt so helpless and anguished as he does know. He tries to move but the birds are everywhere. Isak thinks about taking out his knives, but he would just probably lose his eyes if he took his hand off from protecting them. 

Suddenly, he hears multiple plumps from his right. 

“RUN!” Even shouts. He hears more plumps, and realises that Even must be hitting the birds with his trident. “Isak, now!” 

Isak doesn’t know which direction he’s going, because he’s too afraid to open his eyes, but he runs. When he’s sure there’s not birds anymore around him that could pierce his eyes or maul him to death, he opens his eyes and looks back. 

Even stands in the middle of the bird flock and tries to keep the birds away from him with his trident. There are a lot of birds laying on the ground either dead or groggy, but there’s still too many of them. 

“Even!” Isak shouts. Even makes room for himself and starts running towards Isak. The birds start following them. 

Isak takes out two knives, one for both of his hands. He’s terrified of throwing them, because he thinks about the chance of hitting Even, but when he’s closer, Isak aims and doesn’t miss. He takes two birds down, but they don’t seem to decrease. 

“Run!” Even shouts again. And Isak runs for his life, again. 

They’re running next to the river. He knows the birds are still following them, because of the horrific squawking. Every part of Isak’s body is hurting. His clothes are tattered and he’s probably bleeding from everywhere. 

“Isak! Let’s try”, Even’s out of breath, and he needs to constantly stop his talking to breath. “To... Get away... From the... River!” 

They head right, to the forest. Isak’s out of breath too. He just wants to stop and let his breathing calm down, but he knows he can’t. He’ll die if he does, so he just keeps going. 

And then Isak falls. He trips to a rock and faces the green ground. Fucking rocks! Nothing good ever comes out of them, he thinks. 

But nothing happens. Isak was so tired of running he didn’t even notice that the squawking had stopped. He turns around and sees Even lying next to him on the ground. He’s breathing quickly, trying to catch his breath. 

They’re in the middle of the woods, and there’s not a sign of the birds anymore. Isak feels relieved. 

They lay there until they can breathe normally again. Isak stands up slowly and looks at himself. His clothes are ripped, and he can see his red and bloody skin underneath. 

“Lovely birds, they were!” he says as he sits to the rock he tripped over. He feels so tired, and his body feels like dozens of little needles and knives would have stabbed him. 

Even sits up too. He doesn’t look as bad as Isak, but his jacked is ripped too, and there are few bleeding wounds on his face. 

He gives a little, tired laugh. “Yeah, very beautiful indeed.” He looks at Isak, and concern spreads to his face. “You look horrible.” 

Isak bets he does. “Well, thank you for that compliment!” 

Even rolls his eyes amused. “Let me clean them up. After that you’ll be pretty again.” 

“Again?” 

Even just smiles but doesn’t answer. He makes Isak take his shirt off. Isak’s jacket is so ruined, that he rips parts of it, dips them to the little water Isak had in his water bottle and starts cleaning Isak’s wounds. His wounds sting, but cleaning them makes him feel better. They’re lucky that the birds weren’t poisonous. 

Without a shirt, Isak feels very vulnerable but Even’s touch is gentle. It makes him feel things, again. It’s getting warmer outside as the sun rises higher, but a warm feeling spreads inside Isak too. 

Even offers to clean Isak’s legs as well, but Isak demands on doing that himself. 

“You were right”, Isak says as he’s cleaning the rest of his wounds. “They left us alone when we left the river.” 

Even nods. “I think the game makers got bored for us being in the river for too long.” 

It makes sense. “Yeah, probably." 

“A bit rude of them, right?” Even smiles slightly. There’s a trail of blood on his face. 

“Very rude.” Isak gives a little, tired laugh. “Now let me clean your wounds.” 

“No need to. They’re not as bad as yours.” 

“But I want to”, Isak demands. Even finally gives in and Isak takes a piece of a wet cloth, stands up and cleanses Even’s wounds from his face. 

Even is standing in front of him, he’s a bit taller than Isak. Their eyes meet, Isak can almost feel the heat of his body. Even smiles and Isak remembers his dream again. Oh, how he wishes they were anywhere else than in the Hunger Games. 

Isak smiles, too, but takes a step back. “You should be okay now.” 

“Thank you, Isak.” 

They keep their eye contact, until Isak can’t take Even’s ocean eyes anymore and he looks elsewhere. 

Alongside Isak’s jacket, they lost Even’s backpack too. They didn’t have time to take it with them. Isak now only has three knives left. The only food they have left is the two pieces of dried meat he had in his jacket’s pocket. All that is left from the cracker is small tiny crumbs. 

They eat the dried meat, and even though it’s not much, it surprisingly makes Isak feel a little better. 

“We really need to find food”, Even says and sighs. “And more water. We can’t go back to the river.” 

Isak nods. “I would love to stay in the woods but we could get water from the city.” 

They rest for a bit more, and then start heading where they think the city is. Neither of them knows for sure if they’re going in the right direction but they need to go somewhere. 

They walk for an hour, before anything happens. Suddenly, a girl’s scream flies through the air. Isak and Even freeze for a second, and the Even takes Isak from the hand and pulls him behind a huge rock in front of them. 

It doesn’t take long until there’s cannon. Isak and Even look wonderingly at each other, and Isak feels his heartbeat starting to speed up again. Carefully Isak moves so he can see where the scream came from. Even crawls next to him. 

They’re above a small hill, and under the hill is a sort of a camp. There’s a huge pile of needle of fir, probably made to be a bed. Next to it there are different supplies; water bottles, packs of dried food and even weapons. 

Then Isak looks at the tributes. A girl is laying on the ground, she looks pretty dead. Another girl, a blonde one, is next to her and looks like she’s crying. She was probably the one screaming, and the cannon was for the other one. There are also two guys. One goes next to the blonde girl and tries to comfort her. The another one hoovers around with a sword. It doesn’t look like he knows what to do with that. 

“The tributes from the districts three and eight”, Even whispers next to Isak. 

“How did they get all those supplies?” Isak asks quietly. 

“Magnus, what happened?” the guy with the sword asks. 

The guy apparently named Magnus takes the blonde girl to the needle bed. “Shh, Vilde. It’ll be alright. You should sleep.” He hugs the girl, and the girl nods and lays down to the bed. 

Suddenly a hovercraft appears above them, and a huge metallic grab lowers from it. It takes the dead girl’s body and then flies away. 

“I think she ate those berries”, the Magnus guy says. 

“Really? Oh.” The sword guy sits to a rock. “I didn’t really know Chris but...” 

Magnus sits next to him. “Yeah. I’m so sorry Mahdi.” 

Isak starts to slowly retreat from the rock. They go a bit further, so the other tributes won’t hear them. 

“How did they get those supplies?” Isak asks again. 

Even shrugs. “From the Cornucopia, I think. We didn’t take everything from there, they must have gotten there after we left. But we need that stuff.” 

Isak nods. “I don’t think they’re that good with weapons.” 

“You could just throw them with your knives. You have three left, right?” 

Isak takes a step back. There’s a limb in his throat and suddenly he feels terrible. “What”? he manages to say. 

Even seems to realise the shock he got Isak into. “No, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” 

But Isak remembers again that Even is a career tribute after all. It actually _ hits _ him. Even has been training for this for years, of course he wants to kill them. Isak knows they’re in the Hunger Games, but he can’t just run around and throw knives at people. Maybe Even could, but he just _ can’t _. 

“Whatever”, Isak says. 

“No, Isak, I’m sorry”, Even tries again. He actually sounds that he regrets but Isak doesn’t care. It’s been a rough day. 

“I said it’s whatever. You can go there and pierce them with your trident but I won’t. I’ll think of something not so violent so you don’t have to.” 

Isak climbs to a three nearby. Even sits to the bottom of the tree. He looks sad and tired but Isak is too sad and tired to care right now. 

They don’t speak anything for hours and Isak is happy about that, he needs to be alone for a while. His mind is racing. He thinks about Even and he’s is full of questions. Why did Even volunteer? Has he killed anyone yet? Why is he with Isak? 

He thinks about Emma, too. She’s still alive, Isak’s sure about that and he wonders how she’s doing. 

And he thinks about the tributes under the hill; Magnus, Mahdi and Vilde. He thinks and thinks and thinks. How could they get their supplies without killing them? Isak knows they’re his enemies but he just doesn’t feel right about killing them. He hates the thought of Sonja, how could he manage if he killed three people more? 

The night falls finally, and the very familiar anthem starts playing. The face of the girl from district 3 is projected to the sky for a moment, and then it’s quiet again. 

Isak is getting cold. It was cold in the forest even with the jacket, but now when it’s gone it’s even more freezing. His ripped clothes don’t really warm. Soon his body starts to tremble when it tries to heat itself. 

“Isak”, Even says quietly below him. “I know you’re cold. Come here, it’s warmer if we’re next to each other.” 

The suggestion is tempting, but Isak refuses. “No, I'm fine.” 

“Seriously. You’ll freeze.” 

“No thank you.” It comes out more sharply than Isak intended to. He feels a bit bad about it, but doesn’t say anything. Even stays quiet too. 

Soon it gets even colder. Isak is now really freezing. He thinks how warm Even’s touch made him feel and sighs. He climbs down from the three and sits next to Even. Their shoulders touch slightly, but Even pulls Isak closer. So close, that in the end Isak is leaning on Even’s chest and has his arms around him. 

“Isak, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that”, Even says after a while. Isak’s body has started to warm up now that they’re close, but it’s still cold. 

Isak is quiet for a moment. “I’m not like you”, he finally says. “I know you’re used to being around your career friends and everything but I’m not like you. I haven’t been taught to think like a killer. I’m just trying to survive, and I don’t want any unnecessary blood on my hands.” 

“I know that. And I respect that, really. I guess you’re right; I’m too used to being around the other careers. I’m sorry.” 

Isak wants to once again ask why Even volunteered. But he doesn’t, because Even clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. 

“We’ll figure something out tomorrow.” 

“I already did”, Isak says. He’s starting to realise how close he is to Even, how Even’s arms are around him. The butterflies are back despite the little dissension they had, and Isak is too tired to try to push them away. He feels safe but he knows it’s just an illusion. 

“What?” Even turns his head to see Isak, even though it’s dark. 

“I have a plan. It’s not very good but it’s a plan.” 

Isak can sense that Even is smiling. He squeezes Isak a bit harder for a moment. Isak can’t help but smile too. 

“Okay”, Even says and sounds excited. “Tell me what you have made up, tree boy.” 

And Isak tells. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES  
12 tributes left
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad  
Iben Sandberg FALLEN day 5
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg FALLEN day 6
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim  
Sonja FALLEN day 2
> 
> District 5: power  
Adam Malik FALLEN day 1  
Sara Nørrstelien FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 6: transportation  
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal FALLEN day 1  
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 7: lumber  
Isak Valtersen  
Emma W. Larzen
> 
> District 8: textiles  
Magnus Fossbakken  
Vilde Lien Hellerud
> 
> District 9: grain  
Elias Bakkoush  
Sana Bakkoush
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez  
Eva Kviig Mohn FALLEN day 3
> 
> District 11: agriculture  
Mutasim Tatouti FALLEN day 1  
Jamilla Bikarim FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 12: mining  
Yousef Acar FALLEN day 2  
Noora Amalie Sætre


	9. the trojan horse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!!  
i'm so so sorry that it took me again forever to post a new chapter. but now i'm past the things that took so much time, so i'll be updating more often!
> 
> hope you enjoy this chapter!  
your comments always make my day, so thank you <3
> 
> \+ shoutout to my beta again, check her out! [maleclipse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maleclipse/pseuds/maleclipse)  


Isak could be dead in minutes.

He’s running as fast as he can, slipping between the trees, trying not to trip over a rock again. His mouth is dry, and the lack of food and water and sleep makes his heart beat so fast that it almost hurts. 

Then it happens. Isak trips. Again. He’s on top of a hill, and starts rolling down. It hurts, there are rocks and cones and sticks everywhere, and he’s pretty sure that the little he has left from his shirt will no longer exist after this.

Isak stops rolling when he’s under the hill. He stares at the morning sky and tries to catch his breath, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly he sees a sword blade ten centimetres away from his throat. And then there are three faces staring at him.

Isak’s heart beats, but not because he would be running, no. It beats because he could be dead in minutes, if the plan doesn’t work.

Isak sighs loudly, trying to sound relieved. “You’re not careers, are you?”

Mahdi, the guy holding the sword looks confused. “What?”

“You’re not careers, right?” Isak asks again.

“No, we’re not”, the girl,  Vilde , says. She sounds small, but not weak.

“Good. Thank God. I’ve been running away from them for hours now, I think. Fucking losers.  Psychopaths .”

Vilde gives a little giggle. Magnus looks at him in warning, and she quiets down.

“You’re from district seven, right? Isak  Valtersen ”, Magnus says. “You got the score eight.”

Isak nods. The blade is still too close to his throat. “Um... could you please move that? It makes me feel a bit  uncomfortable . I’m not trying to kill you, I just tripped over a stupid rock.”

Mahdi and Magnus look at each other, it looks like they’re having a conversation without words. Finally, Magnus nods, and Mahdi pulls the sword away from Isak.

Isak sits up. “Thank you. Oh! Now I recognise you. Magnus and  Vilde from... district eight...? And Mahdi... um... three?”

They all nod. Isak makes himself smile. “Well, hi then. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”

“You didn’t, we just -”  Vilde starts, but Magnus talks over her.

“You said you’ve been running away from the careers?” He looks around.

“Yeah, fuck. I was just peacefully sleeping, when I woke up, all of them staring at me, laughing. I guess they were a bit bored, because they wanted to... play with me.” He points at his clothes. He closes his eyes for a moment; tries to imagine the situation, and gets shivers. “I had no weapon to defend myself, but they were too caught on thinking how they would finally kill me, so when I had even the smallest chance to try to run away... I did. And, of course, they didn’t just leave me be, they’ve been trying to catch me since.”

Vilde looks terrified. Good. The plan is going as planned so far, because Isak isn’t dead yet, and they’re not threatening him anymore.

Magnus and Mahdi don’t look happy either. 

“That’s... not very nice.” Mahdi makes a wry face. 

“Magnus... We need to help him!”  Vilde begs. “Look at him!”

Magnus stares at Isak thoughtfully. It’s clear that he’s the head of the alliance. Isak doesn’t know if he believes him.  Vilde sure does, and maybe she can persuade Magnus to help Isak. But if not...

Isak feels small and helpless, sitting on the ground, his clothes all ripped. He does have a knife with him, it’s hidden in his pants, burning his skin because if they find out about it, he’s gone. It’s not going to help him, though, if Mahdi decides to slit his throat open with the sword.

“You do look like a mess, bro”, Magnus then says. He looks at  Vilde . “ Vilde , could you please go collect more pine branches? We need more of those if Isak is going to stay with us.”

Vilde looks excited. “Of course!” She leaves, gets herself a big knife and a spear before she disappears into the forest. That’s perfect, makes the plan a little bit easier.

Magnus gives Isak his hand and helps him get up. “Welcome to our little camp”, Magnus says, and sounds sincere. Isak almost feels bad about his intentions to betray them. But him and Even need those supplies, and after all, it’s still the Hunger Games.

“Thank you, I really needed a friend right now.”

Magnus smiles. “We got you. Let me get you some water.” He starts heading to the pile of supplies, and leaves Isak alone with Mahdi.

Mahdi is dangling his sword on his right hand, and oh, how easy would it be to take it from him. Luckily, he’s shorter and skinnier than Isak.

Isak looks on top of the hill, and sees Even behind the rock they were hiding yesterday. This has to be it. This has to be the moment they start the second step of their plan. Isak is alone with Mahdi, Even can come and take Magnus, and  Vilde is away.

Mahdi is looking at Magnus. Isak is looking at his sword. His heart is racing again, and he can feel the adrenaline pumping to his veins. He has never done anything like this, and it has been a success so far. But one wrong movement, or too slow, and he’s dead.

Isak hesitates only for a second, before he rushes to take Mahdi’s sword. It’s easy, Mahdi trusted him too much. 

“Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“What the f - “ Mahdi doesn’t get to finish his sentence before he’s lying on the ground, hopefully unconscious rather than dead. Isak had knocked him off with the handle of the sword.

They had gone through it many times with Even. How to knock someone off without killing them.

_ “You can’t use too much force”, Even had said. Isak had been leaning on his chest, Even’s arms around him. “Aim for somewhere close to the temple. I know it can be hard but it’s the surest place.” _

_ “How do I know what’s too much force?” _

_ Even had been softly stroking Isak’s hair. Isak had felt warm, at least from the inside. It had felt like the best place of the world. _

_ “That’s the hardest part. You don’t. Just don’t... use all of your force.” Even had given a soft laugh. “Not very helpful, I know. But you can do it Isak, I trust you.” _

And now Mahdi is laying on the ground. There’s no cannon so Isak assumes he succeeded and didn’t kill him. He throws the sword a few metres away, he has no use for it anymore, and pulls his knife out. It feels much more familiar than the heavy sword.

Even is now under the hill, too. He’s pointing his trident at Magnus, who looks confused and is holding a spear, pointing it at Even. 

“Drop it!” Even says sharply. Isak almost winces at how scary and self-confident Even sounds.

Magnus glances at Mahdi lying on the ground and tries hard not to look scared. 

“No!” he says, and Isak can almost see how white his knuckles are from holding the spear so tight. 

Even rolls his eyes. “Would have been a lot easier if you did”, he says and attacks then Magnus. Isak knows that Even isn’t going to kill Magnus, so he has nothing to worry about.

Isak runs to the pile of supplies, and with his side eye watches as Even and Magnus fight. He starts to fill a backpack with water bottles, food supplies and knives. He doesn’t take everything though, he wants to leave something for Magnus, Vilde and Mahdi too.

“Leave it!”

Isak winces out of surprise. He looks up and sees  Vilde few metres away from him. She’s pointing at him with the spear she took earlier. On her other hand she’s holding the big knife. Next to her there’s a pile of freshly cut pine branches.

Isak closes and swings the backpack to his back, and stands up. He shows his knife to Vilde. He doesn’t feel good about it, but what else can he do.

“If I was you, I'd run the hell out of here”, he says, and it surprises himself how calm, and maybe even  _ dangerous _ he sounds. He can’t help but to think how the viewers see him. As a cold murderer? A cool, brave boy? Smart? 

Vilde just stares at him, her eyes big and scared, but hands still.

“I’m pretty good with this thing.” Isak doesn’t actually mean to throw the knife. He couldn’t. But as long as  Vilde is pointing him with a spear and a knife, he can’t move. Who knows, how good her aim is?

Isak glances quickly at Magnus and Even. Magnus is surprisingly good, since they’re still fighting . H e’s blocking Even’s attacks with his spears, but in the end he’s nothing compared to a career tribute. Even hits Magnus’ spear aside, and then knocks him unconscious.

Vilde seems to see that too, and looks even more scared that did before.

“You heard me.” Isak doesn’t feel good about being so harsh with as sensitive person as  Vilde is, but he can’t turn around from the plan now.

Vilde lowers her spear, and this is his chance. 

Isak turns around, and starts running to the direction he came from.

But out of nowhere,  Even shouts “Don’t you fucking dare!” and then there’s two loud thumps in a row.

Isak freezes. It feels like his bloodstream freezes as well. It feels like even the time freezes. He starts to turn around slowly, and before he sees it, the cannon tells what he was afraid of. 

There’s a body lying on the ground. A lifeless body, and the ground beneath it starts to slowly turn red from the blood.

Even pulls his trident off  Vilde’s body. He runs to Isak, takes him by the hand and starts dragging him up the hill. Everything feels like a slow-motion dream. Isak sees that Mahdi is slowly getting up. He doesn’t see his face when everything hits him, they’re already on top of the hill running away.

When they’re far enough, everything starts click to  Isak . Even killed Vilde. Just like that. He stops and wrenches his hand away from Even’s. He takes a step back.

“Why the hell did you kill her? Didn’t we agree on ONE THING?”

Isak is angry. They had agreed on not to kill anyone. Isak wanted no more blood on his hands. And Even had  _ promised _ not to kill any of them. And yet  Vilde was  dead. The poor, scared girl from district eight.

Even’s trident is still bloody. He looks a bit shocked, like he would have any right to be.  Isak stares at him angrily. He feels betrayed. How can he trust Even after this? When he couldn’t keep one promise. They would have gotten out of there without blood. The plan worked perfectly.

Isak starts to wonder how many other tributes Even has killed. One? Two? Maybe he killed the boy from twelve, not Chris.

“Now I know why you volunteered”,  Isak says. “Because you’re just like them. You’re not different from the rest of the career tributes, how could you? You were raised to kill! And that’s what you are here for! To KILL people for FUN! You don’t care, and that’s why don’t care that I killed Sonja.”  Isak has never sounded so angry. He has never let his emotions take over that much. He trusted Even, and now everything they had was gone.

Anger flashes in Even’s eyes too. His eyes are not the peaceful sea anymore, there’s a storm in there.

“Don’t you fucking get it Isak? Not everyone is playing the same game as you are. Not everyone is trying to be a fucking saint here! It’s a fucking Hunger Games! And when people are threatened, they get scared, and what do they do when they are scared? They kill, Isak.  _ Kill. _ ” Even closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens his eyes again, the storm is gone. “I did it for you. Don’t you get it?”

Isak puckers his eyebrows. Nothing Even says makes sense, and it makes him even more angry. “You killed her for me? Why didn’t you kill Magnus and Mahdi then too? Why don’t you just kill me as well, right now! Do it  _ for me!  _ You were going to do it anyways!”

Even sighs. Now there’s a sad and tired look in his eyes. “ Isak . She was going to kill you. When you turned around, she was going to throw that spear. And I couldn’t just stand there doing nothing, I can let you die. But I don’t blame her, she was scared. Her alliances were laying on the ground, maybe she thought they were dead. We had  weapons, we were in a foray. She got scared, and like I said, when they get scared in here, they kill. But none of that matters, when we’re talking about your life. Not for me, at least. I thought you knew that.”

“ _ Since our alliance, I’ve felt much safer, than I did before. Calmer. I know we aren’t actually safe, but your presence just makes it feel like we are”, Even had said last night, after the discussion of knocking someone out.  _

_ Isak didn’t see his face, but he would have wanted to. To see Even’s blue eyes, the kind eyes that made Isak feel so strong things that sometimes it even scared him. He would have wanted to see Even’s smile, the smile that calmed everything down.  _

_ Isak _ _ had smiled, the warm feeling inside him had gotten warmer and warmer. And outside, it was getting colder. Every night was colder than the last one. _

_ “It’s good to have someone here.” Isak had been quiet for a moment, before adding: “To have you here.” _

_ Even had squeezed Isak a bit stronger. “To have me here?” _

_ “Yeah. But only because you look so scary that no one dares to attack us.” _

_ Even gave a quiet laugh. “You think I look scary? Boo!” _

_ “Not at all. I was just trying to boost your self-confidence.” _

_ “Well that was nice of you.” _

_ “In fact, you actually look like a puppy.” _

_ “ _ _ Puppies _ _ can’t be scary, then?” _

_ “No way any puppy could ever look scary.” _

_ “Oh no.” They had been quiet for a few minutes, and Isak had started to feel quite tired, when Even talked again. “I mean it. With you it almost feels like... like maybe everything has a meaning. Like maybe I’m not alone.” _

_ Isak _ _ hadn’t known what to say. He didn’t know what Even had meant. “You’re not alone”, he had said, and Even had squeezed him once more. _

It was a warm memory. It also made him realise that Even wasn’t the awful monster  Isak had just claimed him to be. He wasn’t here just to heartlessly kill people, even though  Isak didn’t understand what the real reason was. And maybe, maybe Even was raised to be a killer, but he wasn’t one. Well, not because he would have wanted to be, anyways. Many of the tributes were killers, and neither of them was an exception. But what was important, was the fact  _ why  _ they had become killers.

And Even hadn’t killed  Vilde just for fun. Isak understood that now. He couldn’t have, because he knew it would put his alliance with Isak at risk. And because Isak knows Even, and that wasn’t him. 

Isak’s anger is gone and now he only feels tired. He feels tears in his eyes, and tries to blink them away. This is not a good place to cry, no matter how tired you were.

Even seems to notice that. He takes a step closer. “Isak.”

“I’m sorry”, Isak says, but he sounds weak. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I just... I don’t know. I’m trying not to give  myself to their game. But I already have and I'm only denying that.”

“ Isak ”, Even says again and closes the distance between them. He wraps his arms around  Isak , and now  Isak really has to fight the tears. He used all of his remaining energy to yell at Even, and what for? 

“It’s okay”, Even says, and he sounds so calm. “I get it, I do. But you haven’t lost yourself to the game, otherwise you wouldn’t care. You’re still you. You’re still Isak.”

Even feels so familiar, he’s the closest thing to home  Isak has in the arena. He pulls his head back a bit, so he can see Even’s face. Even smiles slightly, and  Isak smiles shyly back. He can’t help but look at Even’s lips, they’re so close of his. 

Their eyes meet, and Even softly places his hand to  Isak’s hair.  Isak stomach fills with the familiar butterflies, and he forgets everything that just happened. He wants to break the remaining distance between them. And slowly, they get closer and closer. Their lips. Their hearts. But just before they meet, a loud trumpet sound goes through the air. Isak jumps out of fright. They both take a step back to look around.

“Good  morning , dear tributes!” a voice says from the sky. Isak doesn’t recognise it. “It’s been interesting first six days! A lot has happened, and I bet every one of you would use some kind of a...  _ benefit _ .  T hat’s why we’re hosting a feast at the Cornucopia at next sunrise. We welcome you all, and let me say, we’ll be generous. See you tomorrow!”

Takes a moment before Isak understands what the voice said. “A feast?”

“It’s when the game makers give tributes something they need. To make the game more interesting.”

Then  Isak remembers, he’s seen that on TV before.  Isak also remembers, that he’s in the arena, and the moment they had with Even is now broken. Was it even real? 

Isak looks at his ripped clothes. “Do you think I could get new clothes? I can’t think about anything else I would desperately need.”

Even looks thoughtful. “That’s possible. Or then there’s nothing, and it’s just a way to get a good fight.”

“But we could try, right? I mean, I could really use new clothes.”

“Isak... I don’t know. There will be other tributes too. We might have to fight.” Even’s quiet for a moment. “Kill to survive.”

Isak takes the backpack off, leans on a tree and sits down. “That’s true.”

Even sits next to him. “But we can go. If you want to. There are only two of the actual careers left, we could take that.”

Isak thinks. Is he ready to kill again? He doesn’t know, and he’s too tired to think about that right now.

“I’m sorry  Isak ”, Even says quietly. “That I yelled at you. That I killed her.”

Their eyes meet. The sadness is still there in Even’s eyes.

“I’m sorry that I killed Sonja.”

“I know.”

For a moment, they’re just looking at each other’s eyes. Then Even takes the backpack and empties it. There are four full water bottles, two apples, a pack of dried meat, two cans of something, maybe tuna and a pack of dried fruits.

“Wow. That’s a lot of food”, Even says.

Isak nods. “I didn’t take everything from them.”

Even smiles. “That’s great.” He hands Isak a full water bottle. Their fingers brush at each other, and something electric but good goes through Isak.  ”You should sleep.”

Isak is thankful for the suggestion. It’s not even midday yet, but it’s been a rough start to a day. “Thank you Even”, Isak says. “For everything.”

Even smiles at him. He brushes a hair away from Isak’s face. “Sleep now. I’ll prepare us food, and wake you up when it’s ready.”

Isak lays down, and he falls asleep almost immediately when he closes his eyes.

_ That night Isak had fallen asleep to Even’s arms. Arms that were new, but somehow felt right and were the only place in the world Isak felt good. _

_ He could go to the forest back in district seven, breath in the fresh air that made his thoughts clearer. He could curl up to his bed in his little room, pull the blanket over his head. He could climb to the big tree in the backyard of the school, to escape the day. _

_ But nothing could ever feel as good as Even did at that moment. Nothing could ever feel as home as Even did. _

_ Nothing. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES  
11 tributes left
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad  
Iben Sandberg FALLEN day 5
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg FALLEN day 6
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim  
Sonja FALLEN day 2
> 
> District 5: power  
Adam Malik FALLEN day 1  
Sara Nørrstelien FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 6: transportation  
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal FALLEN day 1  
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 7: lumber  
Isak Valtersen  
Emma W. Larzen
> 
> District 8: textiles  
Magnus Fossbakken  
Vilde Lien Hellerud FALLEN day 7
> 
> District 9: grain  
Elias Bakkoush  
Sana Bakkoush
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez  
Eva Kviig Mohn FALLEN day 3
> 
> District 11: agriculture  
Mutasim Tatouti FALLEN day 1  
Jamilla Bikarim FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 12: mining  
Yousef Acar FALLEN day 2  
Noora Amalie Sætre


	10. the feast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again <3  
sorry it took again forever for me to update, but here's chapter 10!  
hope you enjoy it! leave a comment if you feel like it <3
> 
> \+ shoutout to my beta again, check her out! she's amazing <3 [maleclipse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maleclipse/pseuds/maleclipse)  
ps. i made a playlist for this fic in spotify, check it out [here !](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0oFrRxxB8sB7l0Jpk1qODB?si=mAsrIYo0RrS6h1OdXoTwig)  
i hope you find the feelings and moment in the songs that i thought they represented !!  
i'll be updating it as the story goes on, i don't want to spoil you with the songs... ;-)

Isak’s feet hurt from walking. 

They’ve been walking all day and night, and he hasn’t slept a minute since the nap he had during the day. Even haven’t slept even that much. 

They had decided that whatever the Feast has to offer, they have to get. That meant they had to be in the city before sunrise. Even though Isak usually knows how to move in woods, they had been wandering around so much that neither of them had any idea where the city was. It took forever before the forest became thinner. That usually meant they were walking towards the city, but Isak didn’t feel relieved until he saw the first ruin. 

It’s night, and it feels like the peaceful night sky mocks them of how unpeaceful they are. 

They hadn’t, luckily, seen any other tributes on their way to the city. They had still tried to be as quiet as possible, and Isak had kept his hands close to his knives. 

Even though walking keeps Isak somehow warm, he’s still freezing. Even had offered him his jacket, but there wasn’t much left of it either, and Isak didn’t want Even to freeze, so he had declined. Even was probably freezing anyways, just not as much as Isak. 

Isak can’t stop thinking about the moment they had with Even before the announcement of the Feast. The Almost Kiss, Isak calls it. It couldn’t be anything else, right? Isak knows that if they hadn’t been interrupted, they would have kissed. 

And he can feel that too. Something has changed between him and Even. The way they look at each other – the looks are longer now, and the way Even smiles at him, it has something new to it. It’s softer. 

It does things to Isak; his stomach is filled with the butterflies all the time. He wants to stop time, the game, look Even in the eyes and kiss him. Really kiss him. Feel him. 

And maybe he should, but the moment just doesn’t feel right. Maybe the right moment doesn’t exist, or at least not in the Hunger Games. And then Isak decides; he’ll kiss Even after the Feast. They can’t die today. 

They’re taking a huge risk, that’s for sure, but it’s one they have to take. Isak won’t last long with his remaining clothes, every night it’s getting colder, soon he’ll freeze to death. But they’ll fight, if they have to. Maybe they’ll even kill. The thought makes Isak feel uncomfortable. If Even’s life depends on it... Is he able to do it? Kill somebody again? He has to.

It’s dark, but the sky is clearer in the city than in the forest and gives more light, and Isak recognizes the place they are. The ruins are getting bigger, and the forest is left behind more and more. 

“I know where we are”, he says quietly. They’re close to the building he was with Jonas and Eva. It’s still quite far away from the city centre and the Cornucopia, but there’s hours before sunrise, they could rest for a while. It could be risky, to go to a place Jonas knows, but Isak doubts Jonas would take that kind of a risk, especially if he’s alone. 

Isak tells his plan to Even, and Even agrees. He looks relieved, and of course, it hasn’t been an easy day for him either. Isak decides that he’ll take the first watch. 

“Welcome to my sweet home”, Isak says as they arrive at the building. 

“Thank you, sir.” Even smiles. 

Nothing has changed since the last time Isak was here. They settle in the living room. There’s probably still Eva’s blood on the floor. Isak’s heart feels heavy. In a way it also feels like Sonja’s blood. 

“Everything okay?” Even asks. He’s leaning on the wall, but it’s so dark for Isak to see his face. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Isak puts the backpack down and sits next to Even. Not too close, but as close as he dares to. 

“We probably have around four hours before sunrise. You should sleep”, Even says. 

“No, you’re sleeping first. I’ve slept more than you have, it’s your turn.” 

Even gives a laugh. “Thank you, Isak.” He lays down, and doesn’t take long until he’s breathing calmly, and Isak knows he’s sleeping. 

In the building it’s warmer that in the forest, Isak is thankful for that, but it’s still really cold. He wishes that he could make a fire or anything that would make Even warmer. He could lay next to him, it could warm them both a bit, but Isak is so tired that if he did, he'd probably fall asleep and they’d miss the Feast. Or worst, neither of them would ever wake up again. 

The thought gives Isak hideous shivers. He pushes it away. He has no time to be so negative, when - Isak doesn’t know. He hasn’t really thought about victory for a while, not after he met Even in the Games. He’s not sure anymore, whether he wants to win or not. It would mean that Even... That Even would die. And if no one else kills him, Isak would have to. Is that the price he wants to pay for winning? Is it really worth it? 

Isak knows it isn’t. He’d rather let Even kill him, than kill Even. He couldn’t live with himself after that. He’s not sure if he can live with himself anyways. He’s a killer, after all. 

The sunrise comes quicker than Isak thought. It feels like he just fell asleep, when Even shakes him awake. 

“Good morning! We have to leave soon.” 

The room is still dark, but now Isak can see Even’s face. It’s really close. He could - 

Even stands up. “What do you think if we leave our stuff here? I mean... If the other one... You know, the other one can come here and get the stuff. Otherwise they could lose the food and water that’s left.” 

Isak is quiet for a moment. He feels bad that he’s about to drag Even to insane danger. “We don’t have to go.” 

“What? No, we’re going. Look at you, you need new clothes.” 

“But we can’t even be sure there will be clothes there.”

“I know, but we’re already here. We’re going.” 

Isak stands up. “Yeah, okay.” 

“I know you're worried but it’ll be fine. Chris and William aren’t that bad. I mean, sure, they know how to fight but they have no brain to begin with.” 

Isak laughs. “Maybe you’re right.” 

They hide their backpack to the building, and start heading to the Cornucopia. They walk in little alleys, and Isak is holding a knife the whole time. They don’t talk, and since the boots don’t make any kind of noise, they’re almost soundless. But that’s also dangerous, because the other tributes don’t make any noise either. 

Isak misses the forest again. It felt much safer than what the city does. 

It takes about forty minutes for them to finally arrive at the square where the Cornucopia is located. They hid in a ruin next to the tall tower. 

The cornucopia looks now different, than what it did on the first day of the game. There are no bodies lying all around it, no screaming, no fighting. In fact, there’s nothing there, no other tributes, not the benefits Capitol promised them. 

The first sunbeams are already in the sky. Did Capitol really fool them? 

Then, the Cornucopia starts to slowly retreat to the ground. 

“What is this?” 

“Shh. We have to wait.” 

They watch as the ground swallows the Cornucopia. Soon, it looks like nothing ever was there. The Cornucopia is gone for about ten minutes, then it starts to rise again. It rises much faster, than what it did when it went down. There’s a table inside it, and on it there are eleven backpacks. 

“Isak, we need to go. Now!” Even jumps through a window, that has no more glass on it. Isak follows him. 

His heart is beating, and it feels like the first day of the game again, when he was running towards the knife. His feet are still tired, but they carry him anyway. Isak forces them to.

Somebody comes out from the ruin of the City Hall. Isak almost trips, his heart skips a beat. 

The person starts running towards the Cornucopia, but their journey is cut short. A spear pierces their body. Isak gets a quick glimpse of the person’s face before they fall to the ground. 

It was Elias. Elias from district nine. His body stays on the ground, then there’s a cannon shot. 

Two more people come out from the building. 

“That was a perfect shot!” Chris from district two says. William from district one next to him laughs. 

“I know. I wonder where he left his sister.” 

Isak freezes from the inside. He hates those voices. He wants to turn around and run as far as he can. But he doesn’t, he keeps running. They’re almost at the Cornucopia. 

“Oh, look who we have here!” Chris shouts. “Are you in trouble Even? Is the forest fairy trying to kill you? Or maybe spell you with a love spell?” 

“Fuck you!” Even shouts back. 

They get to the Cornucopia. Chris and William are getting closer and closer as well. Isak sees a backpack that has a number 7 on it. Next to it is another one. He grabs them both. Even is holding one backpack too. 

“Let’s go! NOW!” Even shouts and they start running again, away from the Cornucopia. 

Then something flies next to Isak. No. It flies _ into _ Isak. Something flies through Isak’s right upper arm, rips a piece of it. It feels like a dream, Isak doesn’t quite get a hold into a reality. 

He registers that somewhere in front of him is a bloody spear. 

The pain doesn’t come until he falls. He tries to meet the ground with his hands, but moving his right arm sends a wave of pain through him. Or maybe it’s not because of moving it, but for the fact that a spear just flew through it. He falls to the ground, and he tastes soil in his mouth. 

If Isak thought that he knew, what real pain felt like, this wasn’t it. His arm feels like it’s on fire, like someone would be craving his hand with a knife. 

He can’t help but let out a scream of pain. Then, somebody grabs his wounded right hand, and the pain is enormous. That somebody turns him around and then sits on top of him. 

“I bet you’re even cuter when you're _ dead _.” Chris stares at him with a smile. It’s not a kind smile, how could it be? It’s an evil smile, a killer’s smile. 

“Your aim needs practising”, Isak says sharply. Isak bets that his hand will fall off at any second now, but if he doesn’t get away from the situation, it won’t be a problem anymore since he’ll be dead. 

He hates Chris more than anything. Could he reach for a knife with his left hand? He tries to move it, but Chris notices that and presses his foot to it. 

“You’re not going anywhere. I’m sure you would like to use your fairy wings and fly away, but I’m sorry, I can’t let you do that.” 

“You’re not that funny, you know? Or that handsome”, Isak almost spits to Chris’ face as he speaks. 

Chris takes a knife out of his pocket. He presses it to Isak’s throat. Isak can feel it cutting his skin slightly, a little blood running on his throat. 

“What did you say?” 

Isak doesn’t have an answer. His heart beats fast, and everything feels still like a dream. This can’t be his end, can it? As he stares at Chris’ brown eyes, it’s like he could see his life flash before his own eyes. There’s a heavy feeling in his chest, a feeling of fear. He’s not ready to die. He’s not supposed to die yet. He didn’t get to kiss Even. He should have done that, even once. 

“Fuck you.” He spits at Chris’ face and prepares to die. _ I’m sorry Even. I’m sorry Eskild. I’m sorry Sonja. And mom... I’m sorry. _

Something pierces Chris’ body, in three places. There’s a cannon as Chris’ body flies off Isak. Even grabs Isak from his shirt, pulls him up and drags him after him. Isak has barely time to grab his two backpacks from the ground with his left hand. 

Isak is still in a dream. He feels his hands shaking, and the feeling of fear is still there in his chest. And so is the pain. Isak wants to stop the run and curl up to the ground till it goes away. He doesn’t dare to move his right arm, he doesn’t even dare to look at it. What if it’s not there anymore? 

Even doesn’t say anything. At some point he had taken Isak from his left hand now he’s just dragging Isak after him. Isak’s feet, heart and lungs want to quit their jobs due to all the running, and he feels like throwing up. But Even keeps going and pulls Isak after him. 

Even only slows down when they get to their hiding spot. He doesn’t let go of Isak before they’re inside of the building. 

“Are you okay?” Even rips Isak’s backpacks from him, makes him sit on the floor. His eyes widen when he sees Isak’s arm. Isak breaths in and looks at it too. 

It’s not as bad as he thought. Or, it is bad, there’s a piece missing from his bicep, but his arm is not even close to falling off. That’s a relief. It’s still bleeding, and the muscle tissue looks gross. And it’s still hurting like hell, but maybe not as much as it did at first. 

Isak can’t look at the wound for longer. He looks at Even instead. Even looks worried, and is busy ripping a piece off from his shirt, and wetting it with the water they have left. 

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Isak asks. His voice sounds numb. He didn’t die in the hands of Chris, but maybe he dies anyways. 

Even glances at him quickly, and gives him a soft smile. “It could be worse, trust me. Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Now take off your shirt.” 

Isak doesn’t know if Even is telling the truth, or just trying to calm him down. He tries to take his shirt off, but it’s glued with blood to his skin, and it hurts. Even comes closer and helps him. Isak tries to keep his sounds of pain inside of him, but he yelps, because it hurts when Even pulls his shirt off his wound. He feels bare once again, but Even’s touch is gentle.

Even’s presence keeps Isak calm, it prevents him from going into shock. He has no idea whether the wound is lethal or not. Any of his important organs didn’t get hurt, and the wound is not bleeding as much anymore, but it’s still quite serious. There’s a _piece_ _missing _from his _body_. 

Even takes his cloth. He pours a little water to Isak’s wound, and Isak winces out of a sudden wave of pain. He looks the other way, while Even cleanses it carefully. It feels awful.

“We should put some kind of a bandage to it”, Even says. He smiles softly again. How is he so calm? 

“What did you do to William?” Isak asks. He doesn’t remember hearing the third cannon shot, but maybe he missed it. 

“He took the backpacks and ran off. He’s either a coward or knows not to play with me. Unlike Chris. That piece of shit -” 

“Thank you, Even”, Isak interrupts. “I owe you my life a million times. Thank you.” This time Isak doesn’t feel bad that somebody died. Of course, in the end Chris was an innocent, brainwashed boy, but he had been gone for the game for a long time. 

Their eyes meet. And for a moment, the pain is gone, and Isak almost forgets that he nearly died today. 

Isak leans closer, and Even meets him in the halfway. His hands wander to Isak’s hair again, and their lips meet softly. Isak probably still tastes like soil, but it doesn’t seem to bother Even. Isak closes his eyes, and now it’s all gone. The pain, the fatigue, the game. 

They’re on the beach. The ocean is calm and beautiful, like Isak always imagines it. There’s a forest farther away. A warm wind messes his hair, and the sky is blue and the sun is warm. Even tastes like coffee and strawberries, and his skin is soft. 

That’s the life Isak wants. He doesn’t want to worry about who dies first. He wants the beach and peace and future. Future with Even. 

Even leans a bit back to take a breath. Isak opens his eyes again. He smiles and Even smiles back. Isak exhales. It feels like a dream again. Did they just actually kiss? His stomach is filled with the butterflies, and he wants more. He leans in again, and Even doesn’t stop him. 

Then they both lean back and breathe in again. 

“We still got a wound to heal”, Even says but smiles. He brushes a hair stripe away from Isak’s face. 

Isak still feels Even’s lips on his. Maybe it doesn’t have any meaning in the end, but right now, it means everything. 

Isak doesn’t get to answer, because he freezes due to a sound he hears. There’s a soft tinkling sound coming somewhere above them. They both get up, and Isak takes a knife to his left hand. He probably couldn’t hit with it that well. He feels a bit dizzy after getting up so quickly, and he has to lean on the wall. 

Even grabs his trident and starts heading upstairs. He prohibits Isak to follow him with his hands, and Isak just settles for it and nods. 

There’s a thumb upstairs, and Even disappears there. Isak’s heart beats fast again, but he doesn’t have to be stressed for too long, because Even comes down quickly with a big smile. 

He’s holding a silvery jar. Isak has seen those before. When a tribute gets a sponsorship, the smaller items always arrive in jars like tha. 

Isak’s face lights up too. Did they really get someone to sponsor them? 

They both sit down again. 

“Wow”, Isak says. “What do you think is in there?” 

“Let’s find out.” Even opens the jar. There’s a white roll bandage, a smaller silvery jar and a little note. Even takes the note, reads it and hands it to Isak. “I think it’s for you.” 

_ I knew you could get it ;) - E _

Isak smiles. It’s from Eskild for sure. “Thank you, guru”, he says. He hopes Eskild sees it. He misses him. 

Even gives a laugh. “Guru?” 

Isak shrugs and laughs too. “So, what’s in the smaller jar?” 

“It’s some kind of a cream. Let’s see...” Even takes a bit of the cream, and carefully spreads it to Isak’s wound. The pain eases immediately. It doesn’t go fully away, but it’s much easier to be now. 

Even spreads a good amount of it, and then puts the roll bandage around his bicep. 

“I think it should be fine now”, he says softly. 

“Thank you, nurse.” 

“You’re welcome, baby.” 

“I’m a baby now?”

“You’ve always been.” Even smiles and gives him a kiss on the forehead. “We can’t forget our other Christmas presents.” He gets the three backpack they got from the Feast. 

“Those better be worth my dear arm”, Isak says. 

As they predicted, they both get new clothes from the backpack. The undershirt and the pants are the same, but the jacket feels a bit thicker than the first one. Even helps Isak to dress them, and the jacket really is warmer. Isak is thankful. Finally, Capitol did something good. 

“I took Emma’s backpack too”, Isak says. He doesn’t know if he should feel bad about it, but Emma wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and the careers would have taken it anyways. 

He wonders how Emma is doing. She’s still alive, but for how long? Does she have alliances, food, water? Isak knows Emma wanted to kill him, but he still hopes she’s doing okay. Not okay enough to ever have a chance to kill Isak, but still. 

“What’s between you two?” Even asks carefully. “You didn’t get along well, did you?” 

Isak leans to the wall and sighs. “We dated once.” 

Even doesn’t say anything. He waits for Isak to continue. 

“It didn’t end well. She found out that... that I’m gay. She didn’t really like it, probably because I was just dating her to escape the fact that I’m gay. Played with her feelings. She spread it around, and soon like every kid in district seven knew. And we don’t really have anything like that there, so for many it was weird.” 

“That sucks.” 

“Yeah, but I was kind of an arse as well. I said some things about her too, I was angry. And of course, I denied the rumour, and to make it go away entirely, I started to date one of her close friends. It didn’t end well either. I got bored, you know, and dumped her. She got really hurt, and now Emma wants to kill me.” 

Even stays quiet. 

“I know I was a dickhead but please don’t hate me.” 

“What?” Even gives a little laugh. “Why would I hate you? What Emma did was wrong, and the things you did too, but it’s horrible that you’ve had to go through those things. That you couldn’t be yourself.” 

Isak just nods. Those were one of the most horrible times of his life. At the same time, there was a storm in his home too, and it had felt like everything would collapse soon. “What about you?” 

“Me?” Even thinks. “It has never mattered to me, if it’s a girl or a boy or... And I’ve been open 

about it too, but they all just probably thought that it’s part of my... Uh, yeah.” 

Isak doesn’t know what Even is talking about. He smiles, and runs his fingers through Even’s hair. “Okay.” 

“Now, what’s in Emma’s backpack?” 

Isak opens it. Inside is a black quiver, with at least thirty arrows. Since when has Emma known how to shoot with a bow? Maybe she just hid it really well. 

“So, what are we going to do with these?” They don’t have a bow, and neither of them couldn’t shoot with it that well anyways. 

Even takes them, and one by one breaks each of them in half. “Now no one can use them.” 

“That’s good.” 

Even looks at Isak softly again. “You should rest. You’re still my patient.” 

Isak rolls his eyes playfully. “Okay, nurse.” He’s thankful for the suggestion. His arm is much better now, but it’s still aching. 

Even gives him a little kiss. A warm feeling fills Isak. 

He lays down. He’s very tired, but when he closes his eyes, Chris is sitting on top of him again, and it gets harder to breathe. 

When he opens his eyes, Chris is gone, of course he is. He’s dead. 

Isak tries hard to focus on Even, on the kisses, instead. He closes his eyes, and Chris is there once again, but Isak ignores him this time. Finally, the warm feeling comes back and Isak falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DISTRICTS & THE TRIBUTES  
9 tributes left
> 
> District 1: luxury  
William Magnusson  
Mari Aspeflaten FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 2: masonry  
Chritoffer Schistad FALLEN day 8  
Iben Sandberg FALLEN day 5
> 
> District 3: tehcnology  
Mahdi Disi  
Chris Berg FALLEN day 6
> 
> District 4: fishing  
Even Bech Næsheim  
Sonja FALLEN day 2
> 
> District 5: power  
Adam Malik FALLEN day 1  
Sara Nørrstelien FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 6: transportation  
Mikael Øverlie Boukhal FALLEN day 1  
Ingrid Theis Gaupseth FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 7: lumber  
Isak Valtersen  
Emma W. Larzen
> 
> District 8: textiles  
Magnus Fossbakken  
Vilde Lien Hellerud FALLEN day 7
> 
> District 9: grain  
Elias Bakkoush FALLEN day 8  
Sana Bakkoush
> 
> District 10: livestock  
Jonas Noah Vasquez  
Eva Kviig Mohn FALLEN day 3
> 
> District 11: agriculture  
Mutasim Tatouti FALLEN day 1  
Jamilla Bikarim FALLEN day 1
> 
> District 12: mining  
Yousef Acar FALLEN day 2  
Noora Amalie Sætre


End file.
